TEHRAN — Russian President Vladimir Putin doubted that Israel could attack Iran, according to former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Bolton wrote in his book “The Room Where it Happened” that in an October 2018 meeting in the Kremlin Putin had said Israel “could not conduct military action against Iran alone because it didn’t have the resources or capabilities.”

Putin, he wrote, also doubted that the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal was productive.

The former U.S. national security adviser also said that U.S. President Donald Trump expressed willingness to support Israeli strikes on Iran.

Describing a 2017 meeting in which Trump made the comments, he said, “On Iran, I urged that he press ahead to withdraw from the nuclear agreement and explained why the use of force against Iran’s nuclear program might be the only lasting solution.”

Though Bolton did not mention Israel using force, Trump responded by saying that he would support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doing so.

“You tell Bibi [Netanyahu] that if he uses force, I will back him. I told him that, but you tell him again,” Trump told Bolton.

A U.S. judge denied on Saturday a request by the Trump administration for an injunction to block publication of Bolton’s book, pointing out it is already in newsrooms around the world and extensive excerpts have been published.

However, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also accused Bolton of having “gambled with the national security of the United States” by proceeding to publish without waiting for a prepublication review by the government.

A civil suit is pending against Bolton that seeks to force him to give the United States the right to all the profits from the book.

Trump called Bolton’s actions “treasonous” in a Fox News interview, saying “he should go to jail for that for many, many years.”

MH/PA