SAEDNEWS: John Bolton claimed in his 2020 memoir that Trump, urged by Macron, wanted to meet Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif, prompting Bolton to consider resigning. Recently, he recast this account differently.
According to SaedNews, the return of Donald Trump to the White House after a four-year hiatus has brought up names in the media that were associated with him during his first term (2017-2021), but who distanced themselves before the end of this term.
One of the most familiar figures for Iranian audiences among these individuals is John Bolton, an American diplomat and politician who served as National Security Advisor from April 2018 to September 2019. Bolton’s relationship with Trump ended in 2019, reportedly due to major differences over foreign policy and military approaches. Bolton was a strong advocate for military action against countries like Iran and North Korea, while Trump favored diplomatic or less costly strategies. These disagreements led to Bolton’s dismissal in September 2019. After leaving the Trump administration, Bolton sharply criticized Trump’s policies and national security approaches.
In recent days, John Bolton made new claims in a video interview about what transpired in the summer of 2019, during the G7 summit in the French city of Biarritz. Bolton said that "In 2019, at the G7 summit in Biarritz, Emmanuel Macron secretly hid Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's then Foreign Minister, in a villa and tried very hard to convince Trump to meet him. When others and I spoke to Trump about this, I insisted that he should not meet with Zarif, but when I left the room, I wasn’t sure if he would agree. Ultimately, Trump declined, but it was very close!"
The noteworthy aspect of Bolton’s statement is that this is not the first time he has shared this memory, but it may be the first time he has altered his previously recorded version in his memoir.
The book The Room Where It Happened, published in July 2020, is John Bolton’s memoir about his time at the White House during Trump’s presidency. In parts of the book, he describes what happened in Biarritz during the G7 summit and writes:
“The G7 meetings continued until Sunday lunch when the news bombshell dropped, and rumors spread throughout the Bellevue Conference Center that Zarif was on a plane and would soon land in Biarritz. When we tried to gather information, I received an email from Pompeo asking me to call him immediately, which I did at 3:40 PM.
He told me that Netanyahu had just called him to inform him about the Israeli airstrike in Syria the previous night, responding to Iranian threats against Israel. This was nothing new, as unlike the Trump administration, Israel never hesitated to eliminate threats in advance. We discussed how to proceed in light of the Israeli strike, and then I informed Pompeo about Zarif’s arrival in Biarritz.
He didn’t know anything about it, so I explained that I needed to return to Bellevue and promised to keep him updated. I found Mulvaney in Bellevue, and he was unaware of any contact with Zarif, though he had heard the rumors I had.
I sent a note to one of the U.S. team members at the G7 summit to pass on to Trump, explaining our information about Zarif’s whereabouts. This person replied that Trump had read my note and said that Macron had invited him to meet with Zarif today. He wrote, ‘The President of the United States is eager to meet him.’
I sat alone in a meeting room to collect my thoughts. I told the National Security Council staff to contact our pilots to prepare an alternative flight plan for that day or Monday, as I preferred to return directly to Andrews Joint Base instead of continuing to Kyiv and other stops before Warsaw.
I didn’t tell them why, but if Trump met with Zarif, I planned to go home and resign. I saw no point in continuing the trip.
Then, I had a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, where Iran was briefly discussed. Afterward, I returned with Trump’s motorcade to the Hotel Du Palais to speak privately with him about the possible meeting with Zarif. By then, I had received another email from Pompeo, who had spoken to Netanyahu again. Netanyahu had heard about the potential Zarif-Trump meeting and insisted on speaking to Trump at 5:30 PM Biarritz time, which wasn’t far off.
After arriving at the hotel, I spoke with Pompeo again while waiting for Trump in his residence. I told Pompeo that I would do everything I could to arrange a call between Netanyahu and Trump because I wanted to try one last time to convince Trump not to meet with Zarif. Netanyahu and the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. had also called me. I ran into Mulvaney and Kushner on Trump’s floor.
Kushner was on the phone with David Friedman, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, telling him that he would not allow Netanyahu’s call to Trump. Now we knew who was preventing the calls from going through. After hanging up, Kushner explained that he had blocked this call and Netanyahu’s earlier attempt to speak with the President, as he didn’t think it was appropriate for a foreign leader to discuss with Trump whom he should or shouldn’t meet."
John Bolton is not the only person who has documented what transpired in Biarritz between the Iranian Foreign Minister and the Presidents of France and the United States. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister at the time, also mentioned this event in his memoir titled The Patience Reservoir, covering his eight years as Foreign Minister. He writes:
"Since early 2019, the Trump administration had increased its efforts to initiate talks (with Iran), albeit on their terms. My invitation to meet Trump, extended by Senator Rand Paul, the U.S. sanctions on the leadership, and continued efforts by American allies like President Macron of France and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to convince me to accept talks are examples of these efforts. Although the President and Foreign Minister did not have permission to meet Trump, we saw any meeting as a mere media stunt to further Trump’s agenda.
Zarif continues by giving examples to demonstrate Trump’s interest in meeting Iranian officials at the time. For instance, on July 15, 2019, Senator Rand Paul, a close ally of Trump but not aligned with Bolton and the hawkish faction, met with me in New York at the Iranian Permanent Mission’s residence. During this meeting, he relayed Trump’s desire to meet with me at the White House. I told him I would consult Tehran, but I was certain the answer would be negative.
Also, during the summer of 2019, many discussions took place between the Presidents, Foreign Ministers, and Deputy Foreign Ministers of Iran and France to find a way for Trump to rejoin the JCPOA. The peak of these efforts was my trip to France on August 23 and 25, 2019, at Macron's invitation.
During my meeting with Macron at the Élysée Palace on August 23, various options were proposed for Iran’s phased return to the nuclear deal in exchange for lifting obstacles to Iran’s oil sales and unfettered access to its revenues. Macron agreed to follow up with Trump during the G7 summit in Biarritz.
After returning to Tehran on August 24, as I was preparing for a visit to China, I received a call from French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who invited me to the G7 summit in Biarritz to follow up on Macron’s positive discussions with Trump.
The French side insisted on a meeting with both Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Biarritz. Based on our policy, I agreed to the trip, provided no unexpected meetings with Trump or other American officials occurred. After French Foreign Minister Le Drian assured me no unwanted encounters would take place, I traveled to France on the morning of August 25. At Biarritz, I met with Macron, Le Drian, and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. We insisted on a meeting outside the hotel where Macron and Trump were staying to avoid any accidental interactions. When Macron entered the room, he mentioned that Trump had asked if he could join him on his way to the mayor's office.
Despite Trump’s enthusiasm and the constructive path found during my meeting with Macron, Bolton and Pompeo blocked any positive steps. An interesting point in Bolton’s memoir (The Room Where It Happened) is that Netanyahu also requested a phone conversation with Trump to prevent this potential meeting with me in Biarritz, and Bolton had even prepared his resignation letter."
The three accounts mentioned here about the efforts made in the summer of 2019 to bring the U.S. back to the JCPOA show that Bolton's latest claim regarding the desire of Iran's Foreign Minister for a secret meeting with Trump—mediated by Macron—contradicts even his own previous account in his memoir.
