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John Bolton: Iran Regime Must Not Reach 40th Birthday

Excerpts from Amb. John Bolton’s speech at the Free Iran Gathering Paris 1 July2017

NCRI – This weekend, a former US ambassador to the UN, addressed the Free Iran Gathering in Paris, which attracted over 100,000 people, and insisted that the time was up for the Regime in Iran, and threw his support behind the Resistance forces (including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK).

John Bolton remarked that the only people that would truly be able to rule in place of the Regime would be the Iranian Resistance, which already serves as a government-in-exile with Maryam Rajavi as its president.

He said: “There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs and that opposition is centred in this room today. I have said for over ten years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran. The behaviour and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself. And that’s why before 2019 we here will celebrate in Tehran.”

US foreign policy

Bolton praised Donald Trump’s attitude to the Iranian Regime, which has been evident ever since he was on the campaign trail, and welcomed the idea that US foreign policy is moving away from mediation with the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.

He said: “Now there is under way…a policy review to determine what US policy will be on a whole range of issues, including how to deal with the regime in Tehran. But even as the review goes on, Congress is moving with what for Congress is great speed to enact new economic sanctions legislation against the regime in Iran.”

Bolton stated that these sanctions do not infringe on the nuclear deal because they relate to the Regime’s human rights abuses and support for terrorism, so the Iranian Regime is still legally bound by the 2015 agreement not to continue with its development of nuclear weapons.

He said: “Tehran has said if these sanctions are enacted into law they will consider it a breach of the agreement. Well, that’s nothing new since the regime has been in breach of the agreement for two straight years.”

Bolton said that the best possible outcome for the policy review is to put a stop to the Iranian Regime.

He said: “The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday.”

Iran Regime – a danger to the Middle East

Bolton addressed the Iranian Regime as the central cause for destabilisation of the Middle East and expressed concern over allowing the Regime to take control of land recovered from ISIS.

He said: “As the campaign to destroy the ISIS caliphate nears its ultimately successful conclusion, we must avoid allowing the regime in Tehran to achieve its long-sought objective of an arc of control from Iran through the Baghdad government in Iraq, to the Assad regime in Syria, and the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. An arc of control which if it’s allowed to form will simply be the foundation for the next grave conflict in the Middle East.”

Nuclear Deal

Bolton noted that the Regime is now working with the North Koreans and sharing missile secrets, which should be worrying to anyone.

He said: “Even if somebody were to say to you that the [Iranian] regime is in full compliance with the nuclear deal, it doesn’t make any difference. North Korea is already perilously close the point where they can miniaturise a nuclear weapon, put it on an intercontinental ballistic missile, and hit targets in the United States. And the day after North Korea has the capability the regime in Tehran will have it as well, simply by signing a check. That’s what proliferation is, that’s what the threat’s about, and that’s why Donald Trump’s views on North Korea are so similar to his views on the regime in Tehran.”

Bolton remarked that there is no fundamental difference between Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini and President Hassan Rouhani. In essence, there is no moderate v hardliner difference in the Iranian Regime.

Of Rouhani, Bolton said: “I remember when Rouhani was the regime’s chief nuclear negotiator. You couldn’t trust him then. You can’t trust him today.”

He concluded: “The regime in Tehran is not merely a nuclear weapons threat, it’s not merely a terrorist threat, and it is a conventional threat to everybody in the region who simply seeks to live in peace and security. The regime has failed internationally, it has failed domestically in economics and politics, and indeed its time of weakening is only accelerating.”