‘Bomb Iran,’ says John Bolton in op-ed

Former US envoy to the UN John Bolton writes an opinion piece in The New York Times where he calls on either the US or Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Ironically perhaps,” Bolton writes, “Israel’s nuclear weapons have not triggered an arms race. Other states in the region understood — even if they couldn’t admit it publicly — that Israel’s nukes were intended as a deterrent, not as an offensive measure.”

He then goes on to characterize Iran as “a different story.” Bolton predicts that Iranian nuclear achievements will cause Saud Arabia, Turkey and Egypt to seek to match Iran’s capabilities.

An attack on several key nuclear facilities “need not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but by breaking key links in the nuclear-fuel cycle, it could set back its program by three to five years,” Bolton argues.

He warns that US President Barack Obama’s “fascination” with getting Iran to sign a deal may become so counterproductive that his “biggest legacy could be a thoroughly nuclear-weaponized Middle East.”