The success of “Midnight Hammer”. The US has neutralized Iranian uranium, but Tehran remains a threat

Iran's uranium enrichment program was completely disabled during last year's Operation Midnight Hammer and has not been resumed since, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate on Wednesday. The services coordinator also assessed that the regime in Tehran still remains “intact.”

Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about the intelligence community's annual report on global threats. Referring to the threat from Iran, in the written version of the opening statement, the politician testified that as a result of the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities in June last year. Iran's uranium enrichment program was completely neutralized and that Iran has since made no attempt to resume it. However, she did not read this fragment while appearing before the committee.

When asked by senators about omitting this part, Gabbard maintained that she was trying to save time and confirmed that this was the assessment of the US intelligence community. At the same time, she denied that the reason was to avoid contradicting the White House's narrative.

When Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff pointed out that the White House's explanation for going to war against Iran was to “eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime,” Gabbard replied that “the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president of the United States.”

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who supported Donald Trump in the election, was known for her fierce opposition to war with Iran before taking her current role. She shared many views with her subordinate, Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned on Tuesday in protest against the war. Kent said Iran posed no immediate threat to the U.S. and the White House succumbed to Israeli pressure. During her speech in the Senate, Gabbard emphasized that her testimony expressed not her own views, but the assessment of American intelligence.

The Director of National Intelligence said that in the services' assessment, the regime in Iran “appears intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leaders and military capabilities.” She noted, however, that despite their weakening, Iran and its associated militias are still able to continue attacks on U.S. forces and allies in the Middle East.

“The intelligence community estimates that if the hostile regime survives, it will pursue a multi-year effort to rebuild its missile and drone forces,” she said.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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