Former national security adviser and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton rebuked the Biden administration for not pointing the “finger of blame” at Iran for the attack on Israel, telling Newsmax on Monday that “this was an Iranian attack on Israel.”
Bolton made the comments on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” adding that it’s “disturbing” the administration is unwilling "to show a spine.”
“When Secretary of State (Anthony) Blinken says there’s no evidence of direct involvement (by Iran), c’mon. Look at reality. This could not have happened without, not just the supply of these weapons by Iran, but direction and control,” Bolton said.
Bolton quoted Alexander Haig, the former secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, who “used to say, ‘Go to the source.’”
“This was an Iranian attack on Israel using Hamas as a surrogate,” Bolton said.
“Iran has become the paymaster for Hamas, they’ve become armorer and trainer,” Bolton said. “They’ve moved a lot of top Hamas officials into Lebanon, into Turkey for greater safety. … I think this all traces back to Iran and the administration’s unwillingness to show a spine and point the finger of blame at Iran is very disturbing.”
Further, the Biden administration and past ones as well “just wouldn’t put enough pressure on Iran.”
But with a death toll in Israel rising to at least 900, mostly civilians, Bolton said the U.S. needs to help in figuring out what went wrong.
“We need to get our intelligence agencies actively coordinating to find out what they did wrong by missing this and to make sure in missing this we haven’t missed something else as well,” Bolton said, adding that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be on his way to Jerusalem “immediately.”
But in the end, the removal of the Ayatollah in Iran, Ali Khamenei, is essential.
“For Tehran to escape any retaliation here would be a big mistake,” Bolton said.
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Related stories:
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.