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John Bolton's first newspaper interview since leaving UN
 Excerpts:"I wouldnt have engaged in negotiations with Iran in the first place. The policy has failed. Sanctions wont stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons." Bolton thinks the Bush administration would rather find a way for diplomacy to succeed but time is running out. He added as an afterthought, Thats me speaking ...Bolton believes that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is wasting her time trying to restart the Middle East peace process. The Arab-Israeli conflict was not a priority, he added. I dont see linkage to Iraq, and Hamas and Fatah are in a state of civil war. ...One of his greatest concerns is the threat to Israel and the West posed by Irans nuclear programme. Regime change is preferable to striking Irans sites, he noted, but the only course worse than the use of force is an Iran with nuclear weapons. The EU3 nations years of negotiations with Iran were not a neutral activity. Iran used the time to develop its mastery of uranium enrichment as its own leaders have boasted.... [On Iraq] The fundamental point is whether the civil war that exists is going to continue. Bolton has often been mistaken for a neocon, but while he considers democracy preferable to other forms of government, he does not consider it Americas duty to spread it. The shape and form of the nation is irrelevant: what matters is that Iraq is either tolerably pro-western or de-fanged. He has no regrets about the removal of Saddam Hussein; now it is up to the Iraqis if they want to engage in fratricide. The same goes for partition: If the future of Iraq is to stay together, thats fine. If not, I couldnt care less from a strategic perspective. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-01-14 |
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