The U.S. faces terror threats from across the globe, and Iran continues to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in testimony in a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Clapper noted, even after implementation of the nuclear deal this year, the regime in Iran also poses a “continuing terrorist threat to U.S. interests and partners worldwide”.
“Iran continues to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and exerts its influence in regional crises in the Mideast, through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force, its terrorist partner Lebanese Hezbollah, and proxy groups,” he said, reading from his submitted assessment.
“Iran and Hezbollah remain a continuing terrorist threat to U.S. interests and partners worldwide,” he added.
After a conspicuous absence last year, references to Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah returned to the “Terrorism” subsection of the intelligence community’s 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment, presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, CNSNews reported.
Clapper told Congress during an open hearing that despite an intelligence budget in the billions, his office remains uncertain about Tehran’s nuclear intentions.
“We do not know whether Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons,” Clapper said, adding that if the regime “chooses to,” it maintains the “ability to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons.”