Special to WorldTribune.com

Threats from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and terror-sponsor Iran will likely get worse in the final year of President Barack Obama’s term, according to former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton.

“I think it will get worse in the next year, because our adversaries in Teheran and ISIL and elsewhere, they don’t know who will win our November election any more than we do, but they know they’ve got one more year of Barack Obama, and they’re going to take advantage of it,” Bolton said on Jan. 31.

Bolton said foreign policy is seen as a “distraction” by Obama, which “explains the weakness and inattention we’ve seen displayed over and over again.

“I don’t think the president gives the attention and priority to national security that he should. I think he’s the first president on a bipartisan basis since Roosevelt who doesn’t wake up every morning and ask, ‘What threats does the United States face today?’ “

Bolton told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970 that ISIL “has had some setbacks in Iraq and Syria, no doubt about it, but it’s still consolidating its control over that territory, it’s gained new adherents across Libya and North Africa and more adherents around the world.”

Bolton said an Iran newly enriched by Obama’s lifting of sanctions will surely increase its support for its terror proxies.

The former ambassador said that where Obama “does get engaged, as in the case of Iran, he leaves us and our friends and allies in a much more dangerous place.

“That’s why this next year, I think, is so problematic, and it’s also why I believe 2016 will be a national security election.”

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