Washington planning to press the ring over Iran and urges Armenia to settle Karabakh conflict

Assistant to U.S. President for National Security Affairs (NSA) John Bolton urged to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, open Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azerbaijani borders as the U.S. sanctions against Iran are going to reach their maximum.

“I think the current circumstances emphasize the significance of reaching mutual agreement over Karabakh issue as if it happens the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will open. I think the border with Turkey will open too, and the border with Georgia will raise less problems regarding pressures by the Russian side,” Bolton told RFE/RL.

He said the border with Iran will raise many issues.

“As I have explained to the PM, we are planning to put maximum pressure on Iran as it has not stopped its efforts on creating nuclear weapon. It continues staying the central “banker” of international terrorism. We are concerned with Iran’s ballistic missile programs and its intensive military actions in Syria and Iraq. It is obvious that we do not want to harm our friends in this process. So I think the talks between the Armenian and U.S. governments will be very important. But as I have mentioned in the conversation with the PM we are going to apply the sanctions with their whole force. This is not Obama’s administration. We are going to press the ring over Iran as we think that it is displaying malignant behavior in the Middle East and the whole world and should change it,” Bolton said.