Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton says there is no doubt that Iran wants to foment terror attacks against U.S. interests and is aggressively pursuing its ultimate goal of creating a nuclear weapon . Bolton, referring to congressional testimony Tuesday on the Iranian threat, also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Wednesday sanctions appear to have no impact on Tehran’s quest.
“A few months ago, the administration indicted senior officers of the Revolutionary Guards for threatening to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador in the United States. So I don’t think the terrorist threat is new,” Bolton said. “What it underlines that Iran is determined to reach the successful conclusion to the quest for nuclear weapons — that remains or should remain our real focus.
“They have armed terrorist in Iraq, and have attacked coalition forces, and aiding and arming the Taliban in Afghanistan for the last 10 years — they remain the world’s central banker of international terrorism,” he said. “But the main threat what ought to concentrate our attention is the nuclear weapons. The way the testimony went, it implied if we stop making belligerent noises about the nuclear weapons programs they wouldn’t launch terrorist attacks here — you need to get the cart before the horse.”
Referring to congressional call for harsher measures, Bolton said if Iran truly believed it would face stricter sanctions than already imposed Tehran “would have taken appropriate action.”
“Clearly Iran doesn’t believe it.” Bolton said. “I think what is interesting in this testimony is the response to a direct question by Senator [Dan] Coats of Indiana: The director of national intelligence said all of the existing sanctions against Iran, all of them have not caused one change in its policies or programs in the nuclear weapons program. That means everything that has been going on for the past or six or seven years they have had no impact whatever.”
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