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Noting that the United States’ foreign policy “has to be based on what is in the best interest of the United States,” Bolton said it cannot be focused on “on abstract theories, not on feelings about the nature of the world we’d like to see, but on the nature of the world we live in.”

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The former U.N. ambassador also expressed his concerns about the ceasefire in Syria that emerged from Trump’s meeting with Putin. The two world leaders negotiated, alongside Jordan, to put the ceasefire into effect Sunday and agreed to establish three de-escalation zones in Syria as well. Agreeing with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the U.S. and Russia have the “same goal in Syria, not the same path,” Bolton said that while both countries want to stamp out ISIS, they are going about it in vastly different ways.

“I think this goes to the question of the broader Middle East. It’s true that both Russia and the United States want the destruction of ISIS. But coming after that, Russia and its allies in this conflict are really Syria, Hezbollah and Iran. And they’re looking for a very different kind of outcome,” he said. “I just worry that under Obama we allowed Russia to vastly increase their military involvement in the region.”

“I understand the physical reality that they’re there, you can’t wish it away overnight,” Bolton added. “But I certainly don’t think that we ought to do anything that acquiesces it or legitimizes it, and I worry that this is what the ceasefire does.”[lz_pagination]