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Bolton to Asharq Al-Awsat: Negotiations with Tehran behind Delay in Revealing Assassination Plot

National Security Advisor John Bolton answers questions from reporters as he announces that the US will withdraw from a treaty with Iran during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, October 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst – Reuters)
National Security Advisor John Bolton answers questions from reporters as he announces that the US will withdraw from a treaty with Iran during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, October 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst – Reuters)
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Bolton to Asharq Al-Awsat: Negotiations with Tehran behind Delay in Revealing Assassination Plot

National Security Advisor John Bolton answers questions from reporters as he announces that the US will withdraw from a treaty with Iran during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, October 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst – Reuters)
National Security Advisor John Bolton answers questions from reporters as he announces that the US will withdraw from a treaty with Iran during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, October 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst – Reuters)

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that President Joe Biden’s administration has delayed announcing an Iranian plot to assassinate him due to the nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Bolton said that the current US administration has suspended the unveiling of the scheme, pending the indirect US-Iranian talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

He also criticized Biden administration’s supplicatory approach to revive the nuclear agreement, describing it as a grave mistake for the United States and its friends and allies in the Middle East.

The Department of Justice charged Iranian Shahram Poursafi, 45, with plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump’s national security advisor.

Poursafi tried to arrange the killing of Bolton in retaliation for the January 2020 US airstrike that killed Iran’s top commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, according to court documents.

Bolton strongly condemned the US administration’s policy towards Iran, warning against separating the nuclear agreement from Tehran’s support for terrorism.

He noted in this regard that Iran’s nuclear weapons program and its terrorist capabilities were two sides of the same coin.

The former US security advisor considered that Biden’s policy would send a message of weakness to Iran, which Tehran would exploit in its favor.

Regarding the details of the assassination plot, he said that he was not surprised when he heard that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among the targets of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, pointing to other names on the list, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Commander of the US Central Command Kenneth McKenzie.

Bolton, on the other hand, expressed his gratitude to Biden for allowing members of the Secret Service to be assigned to protect him. He said the FBI warned him in the spring of 2020 of potential threats against his life.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.