Bolton slams proposed Iran deal: ‘Big defeat for the United States’

Former national security adviser John Bolton sharply criticized the Trump administration’s approach to negotiating with Iran, calling a tentative deal under consideration “mistake” driven by President Trump’s concerns about high gas prices ahead of the midterm elections.

“It’s a big defeat for the United States,” Bolton, who served in Trump’s first term, said in an interview Thursday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”

“I think this is a mistake. I think it is being undertaken not because of any strategic analysis of the importance to the United States. It’s because of the administration’s fear of high gasoline prices at the pump in the United States,” he added. “That is what is driving this.”

The tentative deal, first reported by Axios on Thursday, would be a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend the fragile ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which would begin to relieve the enormous economic pressure facing both Washington and Tehran.  

Iran would agree not to impose tolls on commercial ships trying to cross........

© The Hill