Washington [US], March 19: Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the US National Intelligence, said that the United States intelligence community had assessed that Iran was not rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities following US and Israeli attacks last year.
The revelation on Wednesday appeared to undercut one of President Donald Trump's key justifications for joining Israel in launching the latest war against Iran. Trump and his top officials have repeatedly cited Iran's nuclear ambitions as one of the main reasons for abandoning ongoing diplomatic talks in favour of military action.
"As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer," Gabbard said in written testimony to the Senate intelligence committee, referencing the June 2025 US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, "Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated".
"There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability," Gabbard said in the written testimony. Notably, Gabbard did not read that portion of her testimony, which was provided to members of the committee, during her publicly televised oral testimony. When pressed on why she omitted the portion, Gabbard said simply that she did not have enough time.
Trump has repeatedly said the June 2025 attacks, which came at the end of a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capacity, even as he warned that Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions presented an immediate threat to the US. Tehran has for years denied it is seeking a nuclear weapon. Nuclear and arms monitors have maintained that even if Tehran were seeking a nuclear weapon, it did not represent a short- or medium-term threat.
The foreign minister of Oman, who had mediated the latest round of US-Iran indirect nuclear talks ahead of the war, has refuted Trump officials' claims that the most recent negotiations were not yielding any progress. The administration has not settled on any single justification for launching the war, also pointing to Iran's ballistic capabilities, its potential threat to Israel and US forces in the Middle East, and the totality of the Iranian government's actions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Source: Qatar Tribune