Tulsi Gabbard, director of US National Intelligence (Photo: REUTERS)

The statement appears to undercut one of President Trump’s justifications for joining Israel in launching the current military campaign against Iran. Gabbard made the assessment in testimony to US senators at a hearing on global security threats facing the US.

As a result of the June 2025 US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, “Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated,” Gabbard said. “There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.”

President Trump has repeatedly said the joint US-Israel military campaign against Iran was launched on February 28 because Tehran posed an "imminent threat" and was weeks away from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

But the UN nuclear watchdog and many other experts do not support the assessment of an imminent nuclear threat from Iran, who was in talks with US envoys at the time the attacks were launched.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed on Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib.