U.S. intelligence leaders testified on Wednesday that Iran’s clerical leadership has been damaged but not ousted from power, and the mullahs may rebuild their degraded military capabilities over the next several years despite ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes.
The top civilian witnesses before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel — mostly tempered President Donald Trump’s claims that the military danger posed by Iran has been largely vanquished, aside from its ongoing threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
What’s more, the hearing revealed that while Iran has long had ambitions for nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, there is little indication Iran was dangerously close to achieving either of those goals before the war was launched, contrary to White House contentions.
