US President George W Bush's foreign policy is in free fall and is putting US national security at risk, former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told a German magazine today.
Mr Bolton, who was a leading hawk in the US administration and favoured a tough stance against Iran, North Korea and Iraq, told the Der Spiegelthat Mr Bush needed to rein in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"His foreign policy is in free fall. The president is acting against his own judgement and instincts [and is] under the influence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice," he told the magazine.
Mr Bolton said Ms Rice was the dominant voice on foreign policy and that she was a channel for the views of liberal career bureaucrats in the foreign ministry.
"[Bush] does not supervise her enough. That is a mistake."
"North Korea will, for example, now keep its nuclear weapons. And the Iranians have got a signal from our own intelligence services that they can do whatever they want.
"I am not as confident as the intelligence services that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons programme."
The former diplomat, who quit his UN job last December after failing to win Senate confirmation and now works at a think-tank, also predicted a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq if Hillary Clinton became the next president.