Bolton says warned Russian envoy against election meddling in 2018

Bolton said he had also raised with Nikolai Patrushev the issue of tightening economic sanctions against Iran and said they had discussed a phased withdrawal of Iran’s presence in Syria.

“I made it clear we wouldn’t tolerate (election) meddling in 2018 and we were prepared to take necessary steps to prevent it from happening,” Bolton told a news conference after more than five hours of talks with Patrushev in Geneva.

The United States has already imposed economic sanctions against Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Moscow denies the allegations.

Bolton said the issue of meddling in elections had prevented the two sides from issuing a joint final statement.

On Iran, Bolton said that following the US decision to withdraw from a 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Trump administration’s objective was to “put maximum pressure on the regime” by making sanctions more extensive and effective.

Commenting on Iran’s role in Syria’s long-running conflict, Bolton said: “Our objective is that all Iranian forces return to Iran... And we talked about a variety of ways in which it might be accomplished through a series of steps.”