Category Archives: John Bolton

Brexit, Iran, Huawei: What John Bolton’s ‘interim deals’ could cost

Posted on by

How far from European policy will the US national security adviser try to pull the UK?

John Bolton, the national security adviser to Donald Trump and one of the pre-eminent advocates of “America first”, could not have been more solicitous to the Boris Johnson government – but his overtures may come with a sting in the tail for the UK.

The messages of solidarity poured out. We are with you, he vowed, saying Brexit was in the US national security interest, with or without a deal with the EU by 31 October. Laced with a few barbs at the expense of Brussels, he presented his credentials as a pioneer Brexiter, arguing he was a leaver before there were leavers.

Continue reading...

US security adviser in Britain to discuss Iran, Huawei – and Brexit

Posted on by

John Bolton expected to urge tougher UK stance towards Tehran and Chinese firm

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has arrived in London for talks at which he is expected to urge Britain to toughen its stance on Iran and Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei.

As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on 31 October, many diplomats expect London to become increasingly reliant on the United States.

Continue reading...

‘It will not work’: experts question Venezuela sanctions as Bolton touts them

Posted on by

Bolton claimed Trump’s measures will help end Maduro’s reign, but some fear they will make Venezuela’s economic meltdown worse

US national security adviser, John Bolton, has insisted Venezuela’s “tired dictator” was at “the end of his rope”, as he opened another front in the White House’s economic blitz on Nicolás Maduro by freezing all Venezuelan government assets in the United States.

Addressing a summit on Venezuela’s crisis in Peru’s capital, Lima, Bolton pronounced Maduro’s “dying regime” doomed – even though a seven-month US-backed campaign has so far failed to topple Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian successor.

Continue reading...

US Senate pushes Trump to safeguard last Russian nuclear arms control treaty

Posted on by

Exclusive: Bipartisan bill seeks New Start extension– the last formal restraint on the world’s major arsenals

Bipartisan Senate legislation introduced on Wednesday aims to change the administration’s course on nuclear arms control, urging Donald Trump to extend the New Start treaty with Russia or provide justification for allowing it to expire.

Trump has already pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, which is due to end on Friday.

Continue reading...

Hunt siding with Europe over the US in the Gulf makes practical sense

Posted on by

Defence secretary’s decision may seem puzzling but is in Britain’s best interests

In possibly his last act as foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt signalled Britain’s determination to continue to cooperate with Europe on defence and to side with its nearest neighbours, and not Washington, on how to curb Iranian nuclear ambitions.

He told MPs on Monday he wanted to form a European maritime security force to defend shipping in the Gulf rather than join a US-led force. The two might work in cooperation, but they were to be distinct.

Continue reading...

Trump’s arch-hawk lured Britain into a dangerous trap to punish Iran | Simon Tisdall

Posted on by

With the seizure of a supertanker off Gibraltar, distracted UK government was set up by John Bolton as collateral damage

John Bolton, White House national security adviser and notorious Iraq-era hawk, is a man on a mission. Given broad latitude over policy by Donald Trump, he is widely held to be driving the US confrontation with Iran. And in his passionate bid to tame Tehran, Bolton cares little who gets hurt – even if collateral damage includes a close ally such as Britain.

So when Bolton heard British Royal Marines had seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar on America’s Independence Day, his joy was unconfined. “Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions,” he exulted on Twitter.

Continue reading...

The heedless drift towards war with Iran shames Britain | Simon Tisdall

Posted on by

Jeremy Hunt says Britain would stand with the US in the case of military intervention. How has Iraq been forgotten so quickly?

The imperial city of Persepolis, ruined capital of Persia’s kings, rises from the desert north-east of Shiraz like a rebuke to invaders, ancient and modern. Its marble columns, many still standing, were erected about 500BC when inhabitants of the British Isles were capering around in animal skins and it was Greeks who posed the biggest military threat. Donald Trump’s America was a bad idea whose time had not yet come.

Britain’s recent history with Iran is, for the most part, shaming. Nineteenth-century imperialists and traders exploited and bullied, redrawing its borders with the Raj. British armies invaded and occupied and, in the 1920s, helped to elevate Reza Shah to the peacock throne. The ensuing era of autocratic rule sowed the seeds of the anti-western 1979 Islamic revolution. At Persepolis, graffiti left by Victorian army officers still defaces its pillars.

Continue reading...

Saudi influence in spotlight as US calls on Riyadh to end Sudan violence

Posted on by

Washington takes unusual step of calling on kingdom to bring about end to military crackdown

The thorny question of Saudi Arabian political influence across the Middle East and Africa is back in the spotlight again with Washington taking the unusual step of effectively telling Riyadh to end Sudan’s military crackdown.

In an unusual public statement the US state department revealed that its undersecretary for political affairs, the diplomat David Hale, had phoned the Saudi deputy defence minister, Khaled bin Salman, to ask him to use the country’s influence to end the brutal repression against peaceful protesters by the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) in Sudan.

Continue reading...

Evidence Iran was behind Gulf attacks to be presented to UN, John Bolton says

Posted on by

Trump national security adviser says evidence can be shown as early as next week

Evidence that Iran has been behind recent attacks on oil tankers and pipelines in the Gulf is likely to be presented to the UN Security Council as early as next week, John Bolton, the US national security adviser, has revealed.

Bolton has previously said Iran was almost certainly responsible for the attacks, but without presenting evidence. In what is likely to be a showdown over the US’s aggressive Iran strategy, in which Bolton has taken a leading role, much will depend on how credibly the US intelligence agencies can show the Iranian government is directing attacks by proxies.

Continue reading...

Is John Bolton trying to drive Trump to war with Iran? – podcast

Posted on by

Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, was a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now he is stoking tensions with Iran. Julian Borger describes how the standoff could get out of control. Also today: Katharine Viner on how the Guardian is updating its language when reporting on the climate crisis

John Bolton, who has been called “the most dangerous man in the world”, was not Donald Trump’s first pick for his national security adviser. But after a series of resignations, he was plucked from a life of Fox News appearances to reprise his career as the foremost military hawk in the US. Now he has his sights set on Iran and has pushed for a buildup of US military assets in the Gulf.

The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, tells Anushka Asthana that as tensions rise, so do the chances of an accidental – or deliberate – escalation towards war. The echoes of the drumbeat to war in Iraq in 2003 are all too apparent, and it was Bolton’s role in that crisis that prompted a Guardian columnist to attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of him in the tranquil surroundings of the Hay literary festival in 2008. George Monbiot describes how he came out second best from that encounter.

Continue reading...

John Bolton: the man driving the US towards war … any war

Posted on by

Donald Trump’s national security adviser is stoking tensions with North Korea, Iran and Venezuela, in line with decades of taking the most hawkish position on any given issue

The US is now engaged in three major confrontations around the world that have the potential to degrade into war. And in the driving seat on all three fronts is John Bolton, one of the most fervent believers in American military power ever to work in the White House.

Related: Elizabeth Warren announces plan to protect abortion rights – live

Continue reading...

Sudden US threat against Iran adds to Middle East volatility

Posted on by

Frustration in Washington at its failing foreign policies could be a factor in growing pressure

John Bolton’s sudden, unexplained threat to use “unrelenting force” against Tehran has raised US-Iran tensions to a new high. But its impact is not confined to these two countries. Like a lethal poison, their mutual enmity is seeping through the veins of an already unstable region that has experienced dangerously high levels of volatility in recent days.

No clear reason was given by Donald Trump’s national security adviser for his decision to advertise the pre-arranged deployment of military reinforcements to the Middle East. But Bolton singled out Iran, and specifically Iran’s non-state allies and proxy forces, as causes for concern. These groups are deeply involved in several conflict zones including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza, where fighting with Israeli forces re-erupted last week.

Continue reading...

US deploys aircraft carrier and bombers after ‘credible threat’ from Iran

Posted on by

National security adviser John Bolton says any Iranian attack on US or its allies will be met with ‘unrelenting force’

The US has said it is sending an aircraft carrier and a bomber taskforce to the Middle East in response to what it called “a credible threat” by Iranian regime forces.

The deployment of forces was first announced by the national security adviser, John Bolton, on Sunday, and confirmed by the acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, on Monday. Neither official gave an explanation of the alleged Iranian threat. According to one report, information passed on by Israeli intelligence contributed to the US threat assessment.

Continue reading...

Mike Pompeo: a bully boy calls at No 10

Posted on by
The visit of the hawkish US secretary of state poses problems for Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt

American secretaries of state can be earnestly dull, like John Kerry, or plain brilliant, like George Marshall; they can be Machiavellian, like Henry Kissinger, or intensely political, like Hillary Clinton. Mike Pompeo, the bluntly spoken, present-day incumbent who will discuss “shared global priorities” with Theresa May in London, is simply a problem.

As last week’s failed US pressure tactics in Venezuela showed, the former army officer, Christian evangelical and ex-CIA director favours a muscular approach to diplomacy. His messianic drive to force regime change in Iran is another example. He recently suggested Donald Trump had been sent by God to save Israel from Tehran’s mullahs.

Continue reading...

US revokes ICC prosecutor’s visa over Afghanistan inquiry

Posted on by

Fatou Bensouda wants to open investigation into alleged war crimes, including by US troops

The US has revoked the visa of the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor in response to her intention to investigate potential war crimes by US soldiers in Afghanistan.

A statement from the office of Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian national, said she would continue to pursue her duties for the court, in The Hague, “without fear or favour” and that she would continue to travel to the US. She has not been restricted from visiting the UN headquarters in New York.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump Jr and John Bolton berate UK leaders over Brexit

Posted on by

President’s son and US national security adviser in apparent coordinated intervention

Donald Trump Jr and the US national security adviser, John Bolton, spoke out over Brexit on Tuesday in what appeared to be a coordinated intervention by the White House into British domestic politics.

Both the US president’s son and Bolton attacked British political leadership after Theresa May said she would ask the EU for a delay to the UK’s exit from the European Union; in line with parliament’s wish.

Continue reading...

North Korea must give up all nuclear weapons before any sanctions relief, says US

Posted on by

US position hardens after Hanoi summit collapse, warning that any launches at missile sites would violate Kim Jong-un’s promise

The US is demanding North Korea destroys all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons before receiving any sanctions relief, as positions harden on both sides in the aftermath of last week’s failed Hanoi summit.

The US clarified its demands after satellite images showed the North Koreans had completely rebuilt a space launch site they had partially dismantled after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.

Continue reading...

Venezuelan troops blockade border crossing as Maduro tries to woo security forces – video

Posted on by

Venezuelan soldiers have blocked the border crossing with Colombia ahead of a humanitarian aid delivery from the US arranged by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who has declared himself interim president. 'We have been threatened by the US empire, by the President of the United States of America, Mr Donald Trump', declared Venezuela's embattled president, Nicolás Maduro.  The aid blockade could sway the loyalties of the military who may disobey Maduro's orders and allow the much-needed aid to pass. International pressure is growing on Maduro to step down after major European Union nations this week joined the United States, Canada and a group of Latin American countries in recognising Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader


Continue reading...

Only Venezuela can solve its problems – meddling by outsiders isn’t the solution

Posted on by

The whole world waded in after Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president, but the global tug-of-war is dangerous and unhelpful

All crises are global, all solutions are local – and Venezuela is the latest case in point. No sooner had the young pretender, Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim president last month, ostensibly supplanting the corrupt old revolutionary, Nicolás Maduro, than the world piled in. The Trump administration insisted all countries must “pick a side” and back the “forces of freedom”. Russia denounced a US-backed “coup”. China, Latin American neighbours, Britain and the EU all scrambled for position, in accordance with their particular interests and prejudices.

In the past week, this international tug-of-war over Venezuela’s future has grown increasingly dangerous – and unhelpful – as protesters and security forces face off on the streets and the political impasse deepens.
John Bolton, the US national security adviser, is threatening “serious consequences” (meaning military intervention) should Guaidó be harmed or opposition supporters attacked. Maduro warns that the US could face a second Vietnam.

Continue reading...

UN court judge quits The Hague citing political interference

Posted on by

Christoph Flügge warns over ‘shocking’ moves by Trump administration and Turkey

A senior judge has resigned from one of the UN’s international courts in The Hague citing “shocking” political interference from the White House and Turkey.

Christoph Flügge, a German judge, claimed the US had threatened judges after moves were made to examine the conduct of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

Continue reading...