John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sharply criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the Middle East while testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday morning.
Bolton focused on Iran and Syria, laying out steps the United States should take to prevent the two governments from acquiring nuclear weapons. He also had strong words for current U.S. policy toward Israel.
“And America’s disdain for Israel, its truest ally in the region, can hardly be comforting to those who have never enjoyed such close relations,” Bolton said in his testimony. “If this is how the United States now treats close friends, how will it treat mere allies of convenience when convenience disappears?”
Bolton took a characteristically hard line with the committee, stressing the need to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity to stop the Middle East from developing nuclear weapons. According to his prepared testimony, Bolton, who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the committee that Iran will reach nuclear weapons capability and “much sooner than later.”
He also did not shy from taking swings at the Obama administration, saying “I fear that many in the current administration believe that, as undesirable as a nuclear Iran would be, it is a situation we can accept and live with.”
Bolton offered dire predictions of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. It won’t, he said, stop with Syria or Iran. “If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, then almost certainly Saudi Arabia will do the same, as will Egypt, Turkey and perhaps others in the region…” (TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein: Why Republicans need a foreign policy guru like John Bolton to enter the 2012 race)
He then added that in five to ten years, the Middle East “could contain half a dozen or more” nuclear weapon states.
To prevent that from happening, Bolton said, the U.S. would need to “use force pre-emptively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”
“The use of force is a decidedly unattractive option,” he added, “but since the only other realistic assessment is that Iran will soon have a nuclear weapons capability, it has to be taken seriously.” He took one more stab at the Obama Administration, however, by saying that it is unlikely the president will use force, meaning the responsibility would fall to Israel.