John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Newsmax on Thursday that Iran is waging a proxy war on Israel through Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and other "terrorist" groups in the Middle East.
Various groups in the region have targeted Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas last year. Hezbollah attacked northern Israel with drones on Thursday, causing fires but no injuries, according to the Israel Defense Forces. And earlier this week, Israel launched an airstrike against Yemen for the first time after a Houthi drone attack killed multiple people in Tel Aviv.
Bolton told "American Agenda" on Thursday, "This is fundamentally a war being waged by Iran against Israel through terrorist proxies like Hamas, but also including Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others.
"We're talking here about one front of this war in Gaza, but not the whole war," he said, adding that there are threats to Israel "all around its perimeter."
"If you listen to Iranian rhetoric over the years ... they call Israel the 'little Satan.' But they call the United States the 'great Satan,' and we are the target.
"The Gulf Arab states in many respects are almost as big a targets for the Iranians as Israel and stand in between what Iran wants for its status in the region. So this is a very broad conflict."
According to Bolton, "Iran remains just as revolutionary as when it took power in 1979, just as dangerous for Israel and for us."
"The only real way to bring peace and security to the Middle East is to have the ayatollahs replaced by a different regime, a regime the Iranian people can select on their own and not have imposed on them by the military force of the Revolutionary Guards and others that protect the ayatollahs," he said.
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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