The US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who had earlier stated during a Congressional hearing in March that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, has now said that Tehran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks”. This comes after President Donald Trump rebuked her at an airport in Morristown, New Jersey on Saturday when asked about Gabbard’s Congressional testimony and said “She’s wrong.”
The US spy chief, in her defence, has said that her testimony in the Congress in March – where she stated that Iran had a stock of materials but was not building these weapons – were taken out of context by “dishonest media”.
The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the… pic.twitter.com/mYxjpJY2ud
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 20, 2025
Gabbard’s change of stance over Iran’s nuclear programme comes as Trump rejected her Congressional testimony and said she was “wrong” and that intelligence showed Iran had a “tremendous amount of material” and could have a nuclear weapon “within months”.
“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly,” Gabbard said in a post on X.
Iran has always reiterated its stance that its nuclear programme is peaceful and that it has never sought to develop a weapon out of it.
President Trump on Thursday said that he has given Tehran a maximum of two weeks to reach a deal with Washington on its nuclear programme and in the meantime, he’ll decide whether the United States should join the Israeli offensive against Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in response to Trump’s statement said on Saturday, “his country was “absolutely ready for a negotiated solution” on their nuclear programme but that Iran “cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment,” BBC reported.
