US President Donald Trump has rejected statements by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard regarding Iran's nuclear program, insisting that Tehran was "very close" to producing a nuclear weapon when it was struck by Israel.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked about his personal stance on Iran's level of nuclear weapons development, in the face of Gabbard's previous testimony, which had said Iran was not close to such a weapon.
“Very close,” Trump said. When confronted with Gabbard’s specific statement that Iran was not on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon, he responded bluntly: “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having it.”
According to CNN, assessments by US intelligence services have shown that Iran was not only not actively working to produce a nuclear weapon, but was at least three years away from being able to build and use one, writes A2 CNN.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares the same stance as Trump. He has repeatedly stated that Iran was on the verge of ending up with a nuclear weapon.
Asked last week whether anything had changed since late March, or whether American intelligence had been wrong, Netanyahu said:
“The information we received and shared with the United States was absolutely clear. They were working on a secret plan to turn uranium into weapons. They were advancing very quickly.” (A2 Televizion)
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