Washington — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapons state “by the end of the year,” criticizing Biden administration policies that would signal a major escalation the United States has tried to avoid for years.
“What we’re seeing from this administration right now is that (Iran) could declare itself a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year. Reports say that’s a possibility.” Turner said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday.” .
Brennan asked Iran’s “supreme leader” whether he had changed his conclusion about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“Given the progress made under the Biden administration, it is possible that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year,” Turner said. “That would be unlikely.”
“But that conclusion wasn’t reached?” Brennan asked.
“No,” Turner answered.
Turner, an Ohio Republican, made the remarks in defense of former President Donald Trump’s recent remarks, in which the former president said in recent days that he “doesn’t want to be bad to Iran” and that the United States will be “friendly” to Iran. “They can’t have a nuclear weapon, and we’re prepared to make sure they don’t,” he said, because if they do, “it’s a completely different world.”
Former President Withdrew from the United States After criticizing the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal in 2018, which was a multinational effort to curb Iran’s nuclear program, he argued it allowed Iran to accumulate nuclear weapons. President Biden has tried to revive some sectors. He pushed for this deal during his first two years in office, but it failed.
Turner argued that Trump’s “opposition to Iran” and his acknowledgement of the enemy’s strengths “doesn’t show weakness.” He added that “Donald Trump has applied more pressure on Iran economically and militarily than any other administration through his maximum pressure campaign against Iran.”
“They were in a predicament,” Turner said of Iran. “What we’re seeing now from this administration is… they could declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year.”
Turner said that would not have happened under the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign,” adding that “the flexibility and freedom they have had under the Biden administration has allowed them to actively seek to influence our elections, to conspire to discredit Donald Trump, and to continue their nuclear weapons and enrichment programs.”
Federal investigator CBS News has been investigating whether Iranian hackers targeted individuals associated with the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns, Trump said. The campaign revealed that it had been hacked Earlier this month, it suggested Iranian actors were involved. Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence also said Iran’s conspiracy I am against Trump.
Turner said the Biden administration is “not holding Iran accountable on the hacking side, on the disinformation side, on the alleged threat to Donald Trump’s life.”
“There is no response that is going to influence Iran or deter them or hold them accountable,” Turner added. “And that, of course, is going to heighten Iran’s activity and their courage to interfere in our elections and to put our people at risk.”
