Mofaz: Bolton tried to persuade me to attack Iran

On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that John Bolton, the new US national security adviser, had previously tried to persuade him to attack Iran when he took the position of UN envoy to the United Nations.

At a conference held by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in Tel Aviv, Mofaz, who had served as the Defence Ministry from 2002 to 2006, said: “I know John Bolton since he was a United States delegate to the United Nations.”

The newspaper’s website quoted Mofaz as saying: “He tried to convince me that Israel needs to attack Iran.”

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Mofaz explained that Bolton exercised this pressures when he was ambassador to the United Nations during President George W. Bush’s term as a president.

Bolton served as Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006. It is noted that Bolton has a strong position against Iran.

He opposes the agreement which major powers have signed with Iran in 2015 and repeatedly calls for targeting its nuclear facilities.

In 2015, Bolton wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times, entitled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran”. Last Friday, US President Donald Trump has appointed Bolton as a national security adviser to replace Herbert McMaster .