Netanyahu meets with John Bolton

US National Security Advisor John Bolton met with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday morning in Jerusalem, after arriving in Israel late Saturday night.

At the opening of their meeting, Netanyahu warned that the Iran nuclear deal, signed in 2015, and the lifting of sanctions on Tehran had emboldened the Islamic republic and led to the recent spate of attacks by Iranian forces.

“When the sanctions against Iran were lifted because of the nuclear deal and the money began to flow in, Iranian aggression surged,” said Netanyahu. “Anyone who says that this aggressiveness began only now is living in a different reality.”

“Those who supported the nuclear deal with Iran claimed that Iran would start to build and strengthen itself at home, but instead, it is building an empire. It is spreading terror, building bases in Syria, and trying to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah.”

Bolton warned Iran not to confuse America’s “prudence” with weakness, after President Trump ruled out a military strike against Iran over its downing of an American drone aircraft.

Trump’s National Security Advisor also said that the US and would never permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu met with Bolton ahead of a summit in Israel between the top security advisers of the US, Israel, and Russia.

Russia’s Nikolai Patrushev, Israel’s Meir Ben-Shabbat, and Bolton are slated to meet later on Sunday to discuss Iranian entrenchment in Syria and the recent spate of attacks linked to Tehran.

Last Wednesday night, Iranian forces shot down an unmanned American aircraft which the US claims was flying over international waters.

The US has blamed Iran for attacks on multiple oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

Two tankers from Norway and Japan were attacked in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month. The US and its allies have also accused “Iran and its proxies” of being behind the May 12 attacks on four tankers anchored in the Gulf of Oman off the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah.

Iran also reportedly fired a missile at an American drone aircraft earlier this month, but failed to down the aircraft.