Bolton: 'Never a chance' Iran would reach deal acceptable to US

Former national security adviser John Bolton said Friday there was no chance the U.S, Iran and Israel were ever going to reach a nuclear deal after Israel launched a massive attack on Iran to destruct its nuclear capabilities.

"There was never a chance — let me say that again — never a chance that Iran was going to agree to any kind of deal that we would find acceptable,” Bolton, a critic of the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration, said on CNN.

“So it wasn’t that we didn’t give diplomacy as a chance. Diplomacy had no chance, given Iran’s objectives,” said Bolton, who served as a national security adviser during President Trump's first term but has since broken with the president.

Israel’s attack overnight was carried out without U.S. support and after Trump had pushed hard for a negotiated deal. Iran pulled out of planned negotiations this weekend after the attack.

The deal negotiated by the Obama administration in 2015 was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It offered sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for the dismantling of its nuclear program. The main signatories included permanent members of the United Nations Security Council such as China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The deal still allowed Iran to have a civilian nuclear program, and critics said it failed to curtail Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities. Trump pulled out of the agreement during this first term in 2018. Israel was also opposed to the deal, calling it too lenient.

Trump has urged Iran to make a deal over its nuclear program before tensions escalate even more.

After Israel’s attack, he posted on Truth Social, “There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”

In the attack, Israel struck the largest uranium enrichment site in Natanz and killed top military leaders such as Hossein Salami, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two top nuclear scientists for Iran were also reportedly killed.