DespiteDonald Trump’s recent claim that Iran was “very close” to making a nuclear weapon when Israel launched its bombing campaign,Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee, said on Wednesday that senators were briefed on Monday, after Israel’s attack, that US intelligence agencies still see no evidence that Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Inan interview with MSNBC, Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said that Trump’s director of national intelligence,Tulsi Gabbard, had testified to the Senate in March “that Iran had taken no action towards, moving towards a bomb”.
“And we got reconfirmed … Monday of this week, that the intelligence hasn’t changed,” Warner added.
In her written,opening testimonyto the Senate select committee on intelligence on 25 March, Gabbard summarized the collective assessment on Iran of the 18 US intelligence elements that comprise the US intelligence community, which she referred to using the acronym IC:
The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003. The IC is closely monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.
When Trump was reminded on Tuesday of Gabbard’s testimony that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon,he told reporters: “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one.”
“Foreign policy by tweet is insane. And that’s what this guy is doing,” Warner told MSNBC about Trump’s social media posts on Iran.
“Then you’ve got the president basically dismissing all of the intelligence,” he added. “I have no foggy idea what American policy is right now towards this circumstance. I’m the vice-chair of the intelligence committee; if I don’t have the foggiest idea, what do the American people know?”
