TEHRAN — Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal “was my happiest moment, probably of the whole time” in the Trump administration.

“I probably should have left the administration then,” Bolton told Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier in an interview on Tuesday.

He said U.S. President Donald Trump undercut his own hardline Iran policy, telling Baier, “We did put enormous pressure on Iran but when it came down to it by near the end of my tenure, Trump’s still looking for that deal, wanted to meet with the Ayatollahs, wanted to meet with [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei, wanted to meet with the Iranian Foreign Minister [Mohamamd Javad Zarif]."

Bolton said Trump’s “mixed signals” made it “very, very difficult if not impossible to really affect the kind of change that was necessary in Tehran.”

Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018 and imposed the harshest ever sanctions in history on Tehran. However, Trump has been repeatedly calling for dialogue with Iran.

The U.S. president has announced that his administration is putting “maximum pressure” against Iran to bring Tehran to the negotiating table to rewrite the JCPOA.

Trump ousted Bolton on September 10, 2019.

Bolton was notoriously famous for his ultra-hawkish stance toward Iran.

MH/PA