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US Intel Report: Tulsi Gabbard said, “The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program.”
US DNI Tulsi Gabbard (Reuters Image)
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that American intelligence has assessed that Iran is not actively building a nuclear weapon at the moment.
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, she said, “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.”
In the past years, US intel has seen that there has been “an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus”, Tulsi Gabbard said, adding, “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”
The entire impact of renewed sanctions on Iran is still not in effect, but that the “message” has been “certainly heard” by the country, she asserted.
The DNI released the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment as well which predicted that “Iran’s prospects for reconstituting force losses and posing a credible deterrent, particularly to Israeli actions, are dim in the near-term.”
‘China Biggest Threat To US’
China remains the United States’ top military and cyber threat, as per the report, which said that Beijing was making “steady but uneven” progress on capabilities it could use to capture Taiwan. The report said, “China’s military is fielding advanced capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, advanced submarines, stronger space and cyberwarfare assets and a larger arsenal of nuclear weapons. China almost certainly has a multifaceted, national-level strategy designed to displace the United States as the world’s most influential AI power by 2030.”
Russia Making New Satellite, Report Says
The report also noted that Russia is developing a new satellite meant to carry a nuclear weapon. This could have “devastating consequences” for the US and the world, the report warned.
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Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)