Iran: Naming John Bolton national security adviser shameful

Iran calls the appointment of America’s former UN ambassador John Bolton to the role of White House national security adviser “a matter of shame,” Iranian media reports on Sunday, citing his involvement with an opposition group once named a terrorist organization.

The report by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying, for an “apparent superpower, it is a matter of shame that its national security adviser receives wages from a terrorist group,” referring to Bolton attending a gathering of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) group in 2017.

The US removed MEK from its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012.

Shamkhani also says attempts by the US to weaken Iran have only “laid the groundwork for improving the power and influence” of Iran. Bolton advocates regime change in Iran and is opposed to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Also on Sunday, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, spokesman for the influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, told the semi-official ISNA news agency that Bolton’s appointment, as well as that of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo to US Secretary of State, “proves that the final US purpose is overthrowing the Islamic Republic.” He adds that the US will use MEK to achieve that aim.

— AP