The upcoming presidential election in the United States will focus heavily on security-related issues, opined John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the UN.

Bolton spoke to Arutz Sheva at the Israel Day event in New York on Sunday.

“We’ve seen the continuing threat of international terrorism, the nuclear deal with Iran leaves Israel, the United States and all our friends around the world exposed to the threat of nuclear terrorism,” he said, “so I think that it’s important that the candidates outline how they will keep America safe and how they will keep America’s friends safe, particularly in the volatile Middle East.”

So far, added Bolton, the candidates in the election have vowed to keep Israel safe but have not offered any practical solution on how to do so.

“Rhetoric is cheap, action is real. We need to provide adequate defense capabilities to Israel. We need to make it clear to everybody in the region that we stand by Israel and that it’s non-negotiable,” he continued.

The next president must make clear that Washington thinks the nuclear deal with Iran was a strategic mistake, said Bolton.

“Iran will never comply with this deal,” he stressed. “They didn’t intend to comply when they signed it, they’re not complying now, and they’re not going to comply with it in the future.”

With regards to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Bolton described it as an ideological effort to delegitimize the State of Israel itself.

“This is the contemporary counterpart of the ‘Zionism is racism’ movement of the 20th century, and it’s intended, step by step, to prevent Israel from defending its very legitimacy as a state,” he said, adding that the broader implications of the calls to boycott Israel should not be ignored.

The concept of “boycotting the boycotters” is a good one, said Bolton, but the issue should become more of a political issue in the United States.