Iran was “very close” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, US President Donald Trump has said
US President Donald Trump has said he believes that Iran was “very close” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, contrary to the assessment of his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
In late March, Gabbard said that the US intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
When asked about the stance of his spy chief by journalists on Tuesday, Trump replied: “I do not care what she said.”
“I think they [Iran] were very close to having them,” the president stressed, referring to nuclear weapons.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who joined the Republican Party during last year’s presidential campaign, was confirmed by the US Senate as the director of national intelligence in February, following heavy scrutiny and a heated debate.
During her political career, the former presidential candidate and Iraq War veteran has been a fierce critic of the US intelligence community that she currently leads, and was known for her support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: RT
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.rt.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.