by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Visiting Israel, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton says U.S. is "fully prepared for any contingency" in Iran, calls Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria "legitimate"
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks in Jerusalem, Tuesday
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said that while there's been "a lot of progress," the Trump administration has no timetable for rolling out its much-anticipated Mideast peace plan.
He refused to speculate what the plan entailed or when it may be publicized.
Speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Bolton also touched on Iran, saying "regime change in Iran is not American policy. But what we want is massive change in the regime's behavior."
He said the U.S. would do "other things" to put pressure on the Shiite regime, beyond economic sanctions and called Israeli air strikes on Iranian missiles inside Syria legitimate acts of self-defense.
In an interview with Reuters, Wedneday, Bolton said reimposed U.S. sanctions on Iran have been more effective than expected.
The Trump administration slapped back sanctions this month after withdrawing from the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, which Washington regards as insufficient for denying Tehran the means to make an atomic bomb and as a spur for its meddling in neighboring Middle East countries.
"Let me be clear, the reimposition of the sanctions, we think, is already having a significant effect on Iran's economy and on, really, popular opinion inside Iran," Bolton said.
The Iranian economy has been beset by high unemployment and inflation and a rial currency that has lost half its value since April. The reimposition of sanctions could make matters worse.
Thousands of Iranians have protested in recent weeks against sharp price rises of some food items, a lack of jobs and state corruption. The protests over the cost of living have often turned into anti-government rallies.
"I think the effects, the economic effects certainly, are even stronger than we anticipated," Bolton said. "But Iranian activity in the region has continued to be belligerent. What they are doing in Iraq, what they are doing in Syria, what they are doing with Hezbollah in Lebanon, what they are doing in Yemen, what they have threatened to do in the Strait of Hormuz."
The strait is a strategic waterway for oil shipments which Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened to block in response to Trump administration calls to ban all Iranian oil exports.
Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran earlier this month, targeting the country's trade in gold and other precious metals, purchases of U.S. dollars and its automobile industry. Trump has said the U.S. will issue another round of tougher sanctions in November that will target Iran's oil sales and banking sector.
A 2015 pact between Iran and world powers lifted international sanctions that had been throttling the Iranian economy. In return, Iran accepted restrictions on its nuclear activities aimed at increasing the time it would need to produce an atomic bomb. It has long denied having any such intent.
Bolton also said that Russia was "stuck" in Syria and looking for others to fund its post-war reconstruction, describing this as an opportunity for Washington to press for Iranian forces to quit the civil war-wracked country.
Bolton said U.S. contacts with Russia did not include any understanding over a push by Damascus's forces against the rebels in Idlib. But he warned against any use of chemical or biological weapons there.
Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad's big-power backer, says it is committed to destroying Islamic State terrorists but has been more circumspect about the involvement of Iran.
Bolton said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met Trump in Helsinki on July 16, had told the United States that Moscow could not compel the Iranians to leave Syria.
"But he also told us that his interest and Iran's were not exactly the same. So we're obviously going to talk to him about what role they can play," said Bolton, who is set to meet his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, in Geneva, Thursday.
"We're going see what we and others can agree in terms of resolving the conflict in Syria. But the one prerequisite there is the withdrawal of all Iranian forces back in Iran."
Washington wields leverage in its talks with Moscow because "the Russians are stuck there at the moment," Bolton said.
"And I don't think they want to be stuck there. I think their frenetic diplomatic activity in Europe indicates that they'd like to find somebody else, for example, to bear the cost of reconstructing Syria – which they may or may not succeed in doing."
The Idlib region, a refuge for civilians and rebels displaced from other areas of Syria as well as powerful jihadist forces, was hit by a wave of air strikes and shelling this month, in a possible prelude to a full-scale government offensive.
Asked if there was any U.S.-Russian understanding about such an operation, Bolton said, "No. But we're very concerned as we look at the military situation and we want to be unmistakably clear to Assad that we expect there will be no use of chemical weapons or biological weapons if there are any additional military hostilities in Idlib."
In April, the Trump administration led a coalition of U.S., French and British forces in an attack on Syrian government facilities related to the production of chemical weapons after a poison gas attack killed dozens of people in Duma district.
Damascus, endorsed by Moscow, has denied using such weapons.
Asked how the United States might respond should there be a chemical or biological attack on Idlib, Bolton said only: "Strongly."
Asked about possible U.S. recognition of Israel's claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said, "I've heard the idea being suggested but there's no discussion of it, no decision within the U.S. government. Obviously, we understand the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights – we understand their position – but there's no change in the U.S. position for now."
Israel captured much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the territory in a move not endorsed internationally. In May, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz official said that U.S. recognition could be forthcoming within months.
Palestinians seek other territories captured by Israel in 1967 – the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – for a future state. U.S.-backed talks on that goal stalled in 2014.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to restart the diplomacy but has been cold-shouldered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last December.
Washington has also signaled possible accommodation with Israel's West Bank settlements, dropping the term "occupied" from some U.S. documentation about the territory. Most world powers deem the settlements illegal.
Asked whether the Trump administration envisaged Palestinian statehood as the way forward, Bolton sounded circumspect.
"I think it's been the U.S. view for a long time that ultimately Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to agree on this," he said. "Nobody's going to impose a peace in that respect."
Whether peace talks with Abbas could resume was "up to him," Bolton said.
The Trump adviser was more forthright on Washington's trimming of funds for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which extends aid to Palestinians displaced by Israel's 1948 War of Independence as well as to millions of their descendants.
"UNRWA is a failed mechanism. It violates standard international law on the status of refugees.
UNRWA's program is the only one in history based on the assumption that refugee status is hereditary, and I think it is long overdue that we have taken steps to reduce funding," Bolton said.
UNRWA and the Palestinians have warned that the cuts could exacerbate hardship in the Gaza Strip, an enclave that has been under Israeli and Egypt blockades designed to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers. Abbas, Hamas' Palestinian rival, has also restricted funding to Gaza.
Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, placed the onus for Gaza's plight on Hamas and disputed the linkage between the UNRWA budget and Palestinian wellbeing.
"Much of UNRWA's expenses really go to perpetuating the refugee status of the Palestinian people, and I think that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake from a humanitarian point of view ... a perpetuation of an unnatural status," he said.
"I think what we want to see for Palestinians is real, gainful employment," Bolton said, echoing calls by Washington and Israel for economic betterment of the West Bank and Gaza. "Unless you have functioning economies, you are never going to have social and political stability."
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/08/22/in-jerusalem-bolton-says-no-timetable-for-trumps-mideast-peace-plan/
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