Bolton presses Iran to withdraw forces from Syria, areas of conflict

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the U.S. is seeking for Iranian forces to leave Syria as one leg of a wider withdrawal from foreign territories, according to Bloomberg.

“It’s not a question I think of a disagreement about the outcome, but a mutual effort to find a way to make it happen,” Bolton said at a press conference in Jerusalem following a meeting with Israeli and Russian government counterparts.

{mosads}“In our view, that ought to be in the context of a general withdrawal of Iranian forces and surrogates from areas of conflict back into a nice happy peaceful life in Iran without nuclear weapons,” he added, according to the publication.

Bolton said the U.S. is not seeking regime change in Iran and said earlier in the day that the U.S. was amenable to talks with Iran to develop a new nuclear limitation agreement to replace the 2015 agreement President Trump withdrew from last year.

Trump and Vice President Pence have both said Trump will not allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons but would be willing to meet with Iranian officials without other preconditions.

Bolton’s remarks come amid ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, including Trump reportedly canceling a planned retaliatory strike last week in response to Iran shooting down a U.S. drone, which it maintains was in Iranian airspace.

On Monday, Trump extended a series of sanctions to include Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which Iran has said shut the door on any possibility of negotiations.