JOHN BOLTON, the US national security adviser, has been fired by Donald Trump.
The adviser, who was known for his tough stance on relations with Iran, has been sacked by the US President.
Announcing the news on Twitter, Trump said: “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 said that he would be naming a new national security adviser next week. The role does not require Senate confirmation.
Soon after Trump announced the news, Bolton took to Twitter. “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow’,” he said.
Bolton was named Trump’s third national security adviser in April 2018 after the departure of General Herbert Raymond McMaster.
Just an hour before Trump’s tweet, the White House press office had announced that Bolton would join Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a briefing.
US media had been reporting that there was infighting in Trump’s cabinet over how the country should handle Iran. Trump said recently that he has to “temper” Bolton.
A divisive figure in Washington, Bolton was known for a hawkish foreign policy and became a household name over his support for the Iraq War as the US ambassador to the United Nations under George W Bush.
Bolton served in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush, and served as a Bush lawyer during the 2000 Florida recount.
Inside the administration he advocated caution on the president’s talks with North Korea and against Trump’s decision last year to pull US troops out of Syria.
He masterminded a quiet campaign inside the administration and with allies abroad to convince Trump to keep US forces in Syria to counter any Islamic State and Iranian influence in the region.
In September 2018, Bolton threatened to arrest and sanction judges of the International Criminal Court if it moved to charge any American who served in Afghanistan with war crimes, calling the body “outright dangerous” to the US.
With reporting by Associated Press
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