US intel chief Gabbard warns Iran could build nuke 'within weeks', slams 'dishonest media'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "US intel chief Gabbard warns Iran could build nuke 'within weeks', slams 'dishonest media'")
US Intel Chief Gabbard Photograph: (AFP)
Her change of position came after Donald Trump said she was ‘wrong’ and that intelligence showed Iran had a ‘tremendous amount of material’ and could have a nuclear weapon ‘within months’
US Intel Chief Tulsi Gabbard said that Iran could produce nuclear weapons "within weeks", months after she appeared before Congress to testify that the nation was not making them. The US Director of National Intelligence said her March testimony - in which she said Iran had a stock of materials but was not manufacturing these weapons - had been misconstrued by "dishonest media".
Her flip was after Donald Trump said that she was "wrong" and that intelligence indicated Iran had a "tremendous amount of material" and could make a nuclear weapon "within months".
Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and it has never attempted to build a nuclear weapon. On Thursday (June 19 ), Trump said he was giving Tehran the "maximum" of two weeks to agree on its nuclear program with Washington. He added that he would soon determine if the US will join the Israeli strikes against Iran.
There has been growing disagreement within Trump's "America First" movement on whether the US should get involved in the conflict. On Saturday morning, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his nation was "absolutely ready for a negotiated solution" on their nuclear programme but Iran "cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment".
In her social media post, Gabbard said US intelligence indicated Iran is "at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months". "President Trump has made it very clear that can't happen, and I agree," she continued.
Gabbard shared a video of her complete testimony to Congress in March, in which she reported US intelligence agencies had found that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.
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Experts also determined that Iran had not restarted its suspended 2003 nuclear arms programme, she said in the video, while the country's inventory of enriched uranium - one building block of such weapons - was at a historic high. In her testimony, she said Iran's inventory was "unprecedented for a non-nuclear-armed state.".
Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world's nuclear watchdog, sounded the alarm over Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, which can be used to produce reactor fuel but also weapons. Gabbard's testimony in March has been previously attacked by Trump, who previously told reporters that he did not "care what she said".
The US president indicated that he is sure Iran were "very close to having a weapon" and his nation was not going to let that occur.
