President Joe Biden has issued a stark warning to Iran, stating that any assassination attempt on Former President Donald Trump or other ex-US officials would be considered an act of war, The Washington Post reports. This comes as Trump's campaign claims he has been briefed by US intelligence on specific threats from Iran to assassinate him, according to the BBC.

The Biden administration has been monitoring Iranian threats against Trump for several years, according to National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett. "Should Iran attack any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences," Savett said.

A senior Biden administration official revealed that the president sent a message "to the highest levels" of the Iranian government, urging them to cease plotting against Trump and former US officials. The US has specifically cautioned Iran against targeting Trump, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Brian Hook, the Trump administration's special representative for Iran.

Trump took to social media platform X to address the situation. "Big threats on my life by Iran," he posted. "Moves were already made by Iran that didn't work out, but they will try again. I'm surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than ever before. Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving more money to the Secret Service. An attack on a former President is a death wish for the attacker!"

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung stated, "Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months." He added that law enforcement across agencies are working to ensure Trump's protection and a fair election.

TRUMP: BIG THREATS ON MY LIFE BY IRAN

"Iran has already made moves against me, and they will try again.

I'm surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than ever before.

Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving more money to the Secret Service.

An attack on a former… pic.twitter.com/1o0PR2xCnC

— ChazzP12 (@ChazzP12) September 26, 2024

These warnings come after Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13, when he was wounded, and another person was killed in a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally. On September 15, another incident occurred when a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. US prosecutors have since charged Ryan Wesley Routh with an attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in connection with this event.

The Trump campaign last month claimed some of its internal communications had been hacked, suggesting Iranian operatives were behind the breach. In 2022, the US Justice Department charged a member of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with plotting to kill John Bolton, allegedly in retaliation for the US strike that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

The post Biden warns Iran Trump assassination attempt would be 'act of war' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A new senior Pentagon adviser repeatedly said that US support for Israel was due to money from the "Israeli lobby" and accused prominent political figures, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, of getting "very, very rich" from their support for the Jewish state – echoing anti-Semitic tropes of Israeli control of the US government and Jewish money controlling politics and policy.

Retired US Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who became a senior adviser to acting US Defense Secretary Christopher Miller last week, made the remarks in two media appearances in 2012 and 2019.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"You have to look at the people that donate to those individuals," said Macgregor in a September 2019 interview when asked if then-US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sought war with Iran. "Mr. Bolton has become very, very rich, and is in the position he's in because of his unconditional support for the Israeli lobby. He is their man on the ground in the White House."

"The same thing is largely true for Mr. Pompeo, he has aspirations to be president," he added. "He has his hands out for money from the Israeli lobby, the Saudis and others."

In a 2012 interview with the Russian state outlet RT, Macgregor alleged that the Israel lobby has "enormous influence" on Congress and accused the lobby of "pushing military action" against Iran.

"I think the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its subordinate elements or affiliated elements that represent enormous quantities of money that over many years have cultivated an enormous influence in power in Congress," he said. "I think you've got a lot of people on the Hill who fall into two categories. One category that is interested in money and wants to be re-elected, and they don't want to run the risk of the various lobbies that are pushing military action against Iran to contribute money to their opponents."

In a tweet on Friday, AIPAC called Macgregor's remarks "ill-informed and illegitimate."

"We are proud that we are engaged in the democratic process to strengthen the US-Israel relationship. Our bipartisan efforts are reflective of American values and interests. We will not be deterred in any way by ill-informed and illegitimate attacks on this important work," tweeted AIPAC.

Macgregor did not respond to requests for comment from CNN, which first reported on Friday these past remarks.

Earlier this year, he was nominated as US ambassador to Germany to succeed Richard Grenell, but his nomination stalled in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to past controversial comments.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Pentagon advisor: US support for Israel was due to money from 'Israeli lobby' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

 Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

According to the book, which Trump and other administrations have attacked as full of lies and distortions, Bolton was at a meeting with the president in which Iran's conduct was a central topic of conversation, even though at that time he was not a member of the White House inner circle.

"On Iran, I urged that he [Trump] press ahead to withdraw from the nuclear agreement and explained why the use of force against Iran's nuclear program might be the only lasting solution," Bolton wrote.

According to Bolton, the president, in response, said unprompted: "You tell Bibi that if he uses force, I will back him. I told him that, but you tell him again."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Report: Trump was willing to support Israeli attack on Iran appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

O'Brien appears eager to reinstate the interagency coordinating role for which the NSC was originally conceived after conservative hawk John Bolton's tenure in which he drew fire for not adequately consulting other agencies. Trump fired Bolton last month over strong policy disagreements.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"We're going to coordinate policy out of the White House, we're not going to operationalize national security and foreign policy as the NSC out of the White House. That's the work of the departments and agencies," O'Brien told Reuters in an interview.

O'Brien was the US special envoy for hostage affairs when he was tapped by Trump on Sept. 18 to be his fourth national security adviser, a choice that had the blessing of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A California lawyer with UN and State Department experience, O'Brien will have to navigate enormous policy challenges, including Republican backlash to Trump's decision this week to withdraw some US troops from northeast Syria, a move that enabled Turkey to begin an incursion against US-allied Kurdish fighters.

O'Brien has told aides his job is not to tell the president how the world works and what he should do but to ensure he has options. He seeks to bolster the role of the cabinet departments in crafting policy rather than have the NSC attempt to do it.

He told Reuters he was happy to offer Trump his own national security opinions if asked, but only after the president had already heard from his cabinet.

The National Security Council has played a powerful foreign policy role over the decades since it was created in 1947 under President Harry S. Truman.

Some national security advisers have beefed up staff and run foreign policy out of the White House to the chagrin of officials at the State and Defense departments.

The number of NSC policy advisers has trended higher over the past 30 years. President George H.W. Bush had less than 50, Bill Clinton went up to 96, George W. Bush's grew to 136 in his second term, and Barack Obama at one point had 184, according to NSC records.

O'Brien said he wants to bring the size of the White House agency down to 117 policy advisers from its current strength of about 178.

That is about the size the NSC was under the leadership of Condoleezza Rice when she was President George W. Bush's national security adviser during Bush's first term in the early 2000s.

O'Brien said he wanted to follow the model for the job established by Brent Scowcroft, who was George H.W. Bush's national security adviser and who limited the NSC to coordinating foreign policy and making sure the president had all the options needed to make decisions.

O'Brien said he would achieve his goal of reducing the agency's size primarily through attrition. Experts detailed from other departments like Defense and State will go back to their home bases as their details expire at the NSC, with the goal of streamlining the NSC by the end of January 2020.

A senior administration official said O'Brien planned to be careful about bringing new people into the NSC staff for now. He has halted hiring for the time being while sorting out what the agency's needs are.

O'Brien's downsizing is aimed at making the NSC more efficient, not trying to limit the amount of leaks to the news media that have dogged the Trump presidency, the official said.

He has chosen from within the NSC for his leadership team. Asia expert Matt Pottinger is his deputy national security adviser, with Victoria Coates serving as deputy national security adviser for the Middle East and North Africa affairs. His chief of staff will be a former Pottinger aide, Alex Gray.

O'Brien is also taking steps to reduce bureaucratic red tape.

The international economics team will be a bit smaller and managed solely by Trump's senior economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, rather than having both Kudlow and the national security adviser lead it.

"I've got a teamwork approach to working with my West Wing colleagues," said O'Brien. "Larry feels the same way. This idea that there's a dual report for certain staffers doesn't make good management sense. We are going to fix that situation."

The post Trump's new national security adviser plans to downsize NSC appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"We congratulate Mr. O'Brien on his appointment, and we look forward to working with him to further strengthen the US-Israel relationship," American Israel Public Affairs Committee spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told JNS.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"O'Brien is a solid pick, with a good reputation within the State Department bureaucracy as a result of his previous role as the administration's point man on hostage affairs," Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, told JNS. "In that capacity, he is intimately familiar with most of the hot-button issues – Iran, North Korea, the 'War on Terror' – that are on the front burner in Washington at the moment."

The appointment, which doesn't require Senate confirmation, came as America weighs how to respond to Iran striking two Saudi Aramco oil facilities on Sept. 14.

"He also inherits a national security bureaucracy that has increasingly begun to 'think big' about strategy in places like the Middle East and Africa, and will be able to harness this team to great effect, if he chooses to do so," said Berman.

Other looming geopolitical threats that O'Brien, who previously served as the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, will face in his new role are Russia and China.

Sandra Parker, the chairperson of CUFI Action Fund, the political advocacy arm of Christians United for Israel, told JNS: "CUFI enjoys a close working relationship with many officials throughout the Trump Administration, and we look forward to working with Ambassador O'Brien on strengthening the US-Israel relationship, confronting the Iranian menace, and curtailing the threat posed by terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah."

"Mr. O'Brien is a great friend of Israel, and is now the top-ranking Mormon in the pro-Israel Trump administration," Zionist Organization of America national president Mort Klein told JNS. "He is also best friends with ardent Zionist US Ambassador to Germany [Richard] Grenell. … And you can't be a great friend of evangelical Christian Grenell unless you support Israel."

O'Brien served under President George W. Bush as a US alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2005, in which he emphasized America's commitment towards solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bolton was then the US ambassador to the world body.

"Endorsing resolutions that condemn Israeli actions, but that fail to address Palestinian actions or inactions, have real consequences," he said then to the world body.

"The appointment of Robert O'Brien, a skilled negotiator and non-ideological foreign policy professional, to succeed John Bolton as national security adviser marks a significant turning point in the White House's national security strategy to confront and prevail against robust adversaries, especially China and Iran, in an increasingly complex and dangerous international landscape," Washington-based geopolitical strategist and diplomacy consultant John Sitilides told JNS.

Middle East Forum president Daniel Pipes expressed cautious optimism over Wednesday's appointment.

"As expressed in his book "While America Slept," Robert O'Brien has reassuringly conventional conservative views on US foreign policy," he said. "But I worry when, as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, he writes that 'we implore their captors to release the hostages as an act of humanity.' Let's hope he acquires a more robust outlook in his new role."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Jewish, pro-Israel community react to national security pick appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Kupperman, a former defense contractor executive, served in the Reagan administration and was appointed deputy national security adviser in January.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

While he is reportedly close to Bolton, which could work against him, according to The New York Times, President Donald Trump likes his straight-shooting style and there is a chance he may take up the post on a permanent basis.

The Islamic American organization, CAIR reacted to the news with a Facebook post bashing Kupperman and implying he was Islamophobic. The group said it was "appalled" by Kupperman's appointment, and noted that he had "served on the board of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), an organization headed by notorious Islamophobe and conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

The post Jewish adviser named interim replacement to Bolton appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the United States to end its policy of "maximum pressure" on his country, and reiterated threats that Tehran would cut its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal further if necessary, state TV reported.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Last year, the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its atomic program in return for access to world trade. Washington has since imposed what the administration calls a policy of "maximum pressure," including sanctions aimed at halting all Iranian oil exports.

Iran has responded with a series of steps to reduce its compliance with the nuclear deal, although it says that it still aims to keep it in place.

Trump has suggested he would be willing to hold talks with Iran to reach a new deal. Iran has long said that talks are impossible unless Washington lifts its sanctions first.

Bolton, a hardliner who held senior positions in the George W. Bush administration, left his position on Tuesday. Trump tweeted that he had fired him after rejecting some of his advice.

"The departure of US National Security Adviser John Bolton from President Donald Trump's administration will not push Iran to reconsider talking with the US," state news agency IRNA quoted Tehran's United Nations envoy Majid Takht-Ravanchi as saying.

He added there was no room for talks with the United States while sanctions against Iran remain in place, IRNA said.

Rouhani repeated previous Iranian demands that Washington relaxes its policies.

"The United States should understand that militancy has no profit, and must abandon its policy of maximum pressure on Iran," he was quoted as saying. "Iran's commitments to the nuclear deal are proportional to other parties and we will take further steps if necessary."

The post Iran says sacking of Bolton won't lead to talks with US appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration," Trump tweeted on Tuesday, adding that he would name a replacement next week.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Bolton, a leading foreign policy hawk and Trump's third national security adviser, had pressed the president not to let up pressure on North Korea despite diplomatic efforts. Bolton, a chief architect of Trump's strident stance against Iran, had also argued against Trump's suggestions of a possible meeting with the Iranian leadership and advocated a tougher approach on Russia and, more recently, Afghanistan.

The announcement followed an acrimonious conversation on Monday that included their differences over Afghanistan, said a source familiar with the matter.

The 70-year-old Bolton, who took up the post in April 2018, replacing H.R. McMaster, who had also often been at odds with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist.

Pompeo acknowledged he and Bolton often had differences but he told reporters: "I don't think that any leader around the world should make any assumption that because one of us departs that President Trump's foreign policy will change in a material way."

Offering a different version of events than Trump, Bolton tweeted: "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.'"

Trump had sometimes joked about Bolton's image as a warmonger, reportedly saying in one Oval Office meeting that "John has never seen a war he doesn't like."

A source familiar with Trump's view said Bolton, an inveterate bureaucratic infighter with an abrasive personality, had ruffled a lot of feathers with others in the White House, particularly White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

"He [Bolton] doesn't play by the rules," the source said. "He's a kind of a rogue operator."

During his time at the State Department under the administration of former President George W. Bush, Bolton kept a defused hand grenade on his desk. His 2007 memoir is titled: "Surrender Is Not An Option."

Stephen Biegun, the US special envoy on North Korea, is among the names that have been floated as possible successors.

"Biegun is much more like Pompeo. [He] understands that the president is the president, that he makes the decisions," said a source close to the White House.

Also considered in the running is Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, who had been expected to be named US ambassador to Russia, and Richard Grenell, US ambassador to Germany, people familiar with the matter said.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that "many, many issues" led to Trump's decision to ask for Bolton's resignation. She would not elaborate.

Trump would sometimes chide Bolton about his hawkish ways in meetings, introducing him to visiting foreign leaders by saying, "You all know the great John Bolton. He'll bomb you. He'll take out your whole country."

Officials and a source close to Trump said that the president had grown weary of Bolton's hawkish tendencies and bureaucratic battles. He was seen by policy analysts as an odd choice for an administration leery of foreign entanglements.

Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and Fox News television commentator, had opposed a State Department plan to sign an Afghan peace deal with the Taliban insurgents, believing the group's leaders could not be trusted.

Among the points of contention was Trump's intention – called off by the president at the last minute - to bring Taliban leaders to the Camp David presidential retreat last weekend to finalize an accord just days before the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

One factor in Bolton's departure was the perception that he had floated the idea that Vice President Mike Pence had joined with him in opposing the Taliban meeting when in fact he had not, a source familiar with the matter said.

The implication was that Bolton was trying to send a message to Trump that even his vice president disagreed with the Camp David idea, the source said.

Sources familiar with his view said Bolton believed the US could draw down to 8,600 troops in Afghanistan and maintain a counterterrorism effort without signing a peace deal with the Taliban.

US officials have said it was Bolton who was responsible for the collapse of a summit in February between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi by recommending a list of hard-line demands that Kim rejected.

North Korea media in May referred to Bolton as a "war maniac" who "fabricated various provocative policies such as the designation of our country as an 'axis of evil,' preemptive strike and regime change.'"

US oil prices fell more than 1% on the news of Bolton's departure, with investors believing it could lead to a softer US policy on Iran.

Bolton had spearheaded Trump's policy against Iran, including the US abandonment of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran and the reimposition of US sanctions.

Bolton was widely believed to have favored a planned US airstrike on Iran earlier this year in retaliation for the downing of a US surveillance drone, an action that Trump called off at the last minute. Trump has since expressed a willingness to talk to Iranian leaders under the right conditions, something Bolton opposed.

An adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Trump's firing of Bolton pointed to the failure of Washington's "maximum pressure strategy in the face of the constructive resistance of Iran."

Bolton, a longtime harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also against Trump's insistence that Moscow be allowed to rejoin the G-7 world powers despite its occupation of Ukraine's Crimea.

Bolton was an ardent opponent of arms control treaties with Russia. He was instrumental in Trump's decision to withdraw last month from a 1987 accord that banned intermediate-range missiles because of what Washington charged was Moscow's deployment of prohibited nuclear-capable cruise missiles, an allegation Russia denied.

Bolton, an unabashed advocate of US power, has sharply criticized institutions such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

Last year, he said the United States would ban and prosecute court officials if it moved to bring war crimes charges against any American who served in Afghanistan or if it opened cases against Israel or other US allies.

While Trump and Bolton appeared mostly in sync about efforts to push Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, Trump had grown increasingly impatient about the failure of US sanctions and diplomacy to unseat the socialist leader.

The post Trump fires foreign policy hawk Bolton, citing strong disagreements appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"We will continue to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it abandons its nuclear weapons program and ends its violent activities across the Middle East, including conducting and supporting terrorism around the world," Bolton said in a speech. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

                                           Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

According to a White House spokesman, US President Donald Trump on Monday spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron about Iran's threat to ramp up its uranium enrichment.

"They discussed ongoing efforts to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon and to end Iran's destabilizing behavior in the Middle East," the spokesman said in a statement.

Also on Monday, US Vice President Mike Pence said that the United States was prepared to protect US personnel and citizens in the Middle East as tensions build with Iran over its nuclear program.

Pence made his remarks as Iran threatened to take major steps away from a 2015 nuclear agreement that Washington abandoned last year.

"Let me be clear: Iran should not confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve," Pence said, speaking to an evangelical Christian group that advocates for the support for Israel.

"We hope for the best, but the United States of America and our military are prepared to protect our interests and protect our personnel and our citizens in the region," Pence said.

Pence said Washington would continue to pressure Iran with sanctions and said that Trump would "never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon."

Trump called off airstrikes against Iran last month minutes before impact after Iran shot down a US unmanned drone.

In his prepared remarks, Pence had planned to say that Washington remained open to talks with Tehran, but dropped the line in his delivered speech.

"The United States does not seek a war with Iran. We are willing to talk. We are willing to listen. But America will not back down," Pence had been set to say in his speech.

The post Bolton: US to keep raising pressure until Iran abandons nuclear arms program appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The waivers – extended to 90 days, down from the previous 180 – were issued in May and allow the signatories to continue conducting nonproliferation work at the Bushehr, Arak and Fordow nuclear facilities. Ahead of their expected review in August, US National Security Adviser John Bolton and officials on Capitol Hill have increased pressure on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to renew the waivers.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

US Vice President Mike Pence and senior administration officials have been briefed on a new essay in the Mosaic online magazine by Hudson Institute senior fellow and former George W. Bush administration national security official Michael Doran, two people familiar with the briefing told Politico.

In his piece, which Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted was a "crucial analysis," Doran calls for the end of the waivers that Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said is the "cornerstone of the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal], the structure that provides international cover for Iran's nuclear-weapons program."

"Historically, Khamenei has always valued the preservation of this program over any practical economic considerations," continued Doran. "Although some have suggested that the economic sanctions now imposed by the administration will be severe enough to force him, eventually, to rethink his priorities, it's worth bearing in mind just how much he has been willing to sacrifice for them in the past."

Last month, Cruz (R-Texas) sparred with Andrea Thompson, the US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, over the nuclear waivers.

The post Calls grow to end waivers allowing Iran to conduct civil nuclear activity appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.