Iran is not building nuclear weapons but recent discourse in Tehran urging the acquisition a bomb is emboldening advocates for such a move in decision-making circles, US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Tuesday.
"The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003," Gabbard told a congressional hearing.
"The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program," she added. "In the past year, we've seen 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."
A top foreign policy advisor to Khamenei and former foreign minister said last year that Iran is capable of producing nuclear weapons and an existential threat could cause a rethink of the Supreme Leader's religious injunction against them.
Kamal Kharrazi's remarks were among the clearest by a senior official mooting the possibility of a nuclear deterrent after over a year of direct and proxy combat with US-allied Israel dealt the Islamic Republic some of its biggest ever military setbacks.
Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons but US President Donald Trump has demanded the Islamic Republic come to a new deal over its disputed nuclear program or face a military intervention.
"Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for US military withdrawal from the region by aiding arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like minded terrorists and militant actors, which it refers to as its Axis of Resistance," Gabbard continued.
"Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats," she added, citing Israel, US military personnel in the Middle East and commercial shipping as potential targets.
Gabbard's appearance alongside other senior US intelligence leaders comes amid dismay in Washington about the inclusion of a prominent journalist in a chat including including some of the officials discussing sensitive military plans.
The inclusion of The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in the discussion over commercial messaging app Signal about forthcoming US attacks on Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen has stoked criticism over their handling of intelligence.
Asked how stepped-up sanctions under Trump might affect Iran's behavior, Gabbard said the president's "maximum pressure" campaign had yet to be fully felt.
"These sanctions have just begun to be reinstated, so the full effects are not yet, have not yet borne fruit," she said. "But the message that the President has sent with his maximum pressure campaign is certainly heard."
