U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton concluded a meeting with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev. Following the meeting Ambassador Bolton stressed in a press conference that the objective of both Russia and the United States in Syria, is to assure that the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary Guards return to Iran. “Our objective is that all Iranian forces return to Iran. Now that would be an objective that I think (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin would share. It’s far from easy to achieve and so we talked about a variety of ways in which it might be accomplished through a series of steps,” U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said.
Among other steps, Moscow is seeking to broker a deal between the United States and Iran, in which Washington would not impose a set of crippling oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic – which are scheduled to be implemented in November – in exchange for an Iranian withdrawal from Syria – an agreement that was also presented by Russia to Israel, France and Germany. “(Russian Security Council) Secretary (Nikolai) Patrushev brought up the suggestion that the Russians had made previously to Israel, France and Germany about a geographic constriction of Iranian forces in exchange for the United States suspending the imposition of the oil sanctions now set for early November. That was a suggestion we had rejected before and we rejected it again today. The sanctions are coming back into effect, that’s clear,” U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said.