Israel should consider destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program after strikes: Bolton
Following Iran’s attack on Israel Saturday, former White House national security adviser, John Bolton, laid out different targets Israel could consider to retaliate against Iran.
On CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Bolton had various suggestions about attacks Israel could consider. He said that unless Iran sees a powerful deterrence from Israel, attacks will continue.
“The way you reestablish deterrence is not proportional, that’s academic talk,” Bolton said. “The way you establish deterrence is by telling your adversary ‘if you ever try that again the price you will pay will be so much higher than any gain you think you can get you shouldn’t even think about it.”
“Israel has a wide range of potential targets. You start by flattening Iran’s air defense capability. Next, you might go after headquarters of the regular military and the revolutionary guard. You can consider going after their oil infrastructure, the oil fields, distribution pipelines, export port facilities.”
He also said Israel could consider destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
“Most importantly, I think Israel should be looking at this as an opportunity to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which is the existential threat that Israel faces,” Bolton said
Iran launched more than 300 rockets toward Israel, 99% of which were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly called off a retaliatory strike after speaking with President Joe Biden, who warned him not to due to a lack of significant damage from the rockets. Bolton said Biden’s approach makes him “an embarrassment to the United States.”
“If Joe Biden, as some press reports have it, is urging the Israelis not to retaliate at all, he is an embarrassment to the United States,” Bolton said. “This is in the American interest to make sure that Iran, which is the principal threat to international peace and security in the region, is at a minimum put in its place to spare Israel, to spare the Gulf Arabs, to spare us from the threat they pose.”
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At a recent campaign event, former President Donald Trump said he would have handled the unfolding situation in the region better than President Biden. Bolton said Trump’s claims were “delusional.”
“I just think Trump is delusional on this point. It’s a point no one can refute or confirm one way or the other. He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation,” Bolton said. “Remember when he threatened ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea? Within a year, he’d fallen in love with Kim Jong Un.”
