John Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, told Bar Shem-Ur on IDF Army Radio Tuesday morning that ”[U.S. President Barack] Obama is harming Israeli security and is playing into the hands of  [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad” by agreeing to talk with Egypt about a nuclear-free Middle East.

Listen to statements by former US ambassador to UN John Bolton

“All of us know this suggestion [of Egypt] relates to one country - Israel,” Bolton stated. "The question right now is how much pressure he is prepared to apply to achieve his objective. If I were an Israeli, I would be afraid of the results of these contacts because of the very fact that Obama agrees to talk with Egypt” about its proposal.

“It is clear that we are talking about an absurd and very aggravating” action by President Obama, “but this is how it has worked for years since the days of Castro, and the ‘shining” period of [Yasser] Arafat,” Bolton told Army Radio.

He also said he is not surprised that the “head of an enemy state can arrive in the United States, take the podium in the center of New York, castigate the United States and Israel and accuse them of mutual nuclear aid.

“This really is not an exceptional step for the U.N. to give the podium to the president of Iran. The best thing I can say about the visit of Ahmadinejad is that his speech was so ridiculous that he actually damages himself more than he does himself any good.”

Calling the United Nations an organization “empty of all content” that “lost its legitimacy a long time ago,” Bolton suggested the establishment of an alternative body comprising only those countries that are democratic.

“There needs to be a wide-ranging discussion on the lack of effectiveness of the United Nations in dealing with international challenges,” he explained. “In its history, it has failed time after time to deal with global threats. This happened with Communism and today it is happening with worldwide terror.”

He dismissed the U.N. committee for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons as another “great name of an organization that has no teeth or significance."

Bolton, who advised then-President George W. Bush to stop paying dues to the United Nations, quit his U.N. post out of frustration.