Trump rips into US intel's Iran report, calling spies ‘wrong’ & ‘naive’

President Trump has called US intelligence agencies “naive” and “wrong” on Iran, after their annual ‘threat assessment’ contradicted his hawkish stance by downplaying Tehran’s nuclear threat.

“The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “They are wrong!”

“They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge,” he continued. “There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

Trump’s aggressive sanctions against Iran have squeezed the Islamic Republic’s economy, but the president’s warnings about the “dangers of Iran” are not shared by the US’ intelligence agencies.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats presented the agencies’ yearly ‘Worldwide Threat Assessment’ to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. In it, the spy chief warned of cyber threats from Russia and China, and nuclear threats from North Korea, but dismissed the danger of a nuclear Iran.

“We do not believe Iran is currently undertaking activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device,” Coats told the committee. He added that all nuclear research undertaken by Tehran has thus far remained within the parameters of the 2015 Iran Deal, which Trump withdrew from last May.

In releasing the report, the US’ top intelligence official contradicts the Trump administration’s rhetoric on Iran for the last two years. In 2017, Trump warned of the “very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” and threatened Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with “consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” last year.

Trump’s own State Department, as well as the International Atomic Agency, have both certified Iran’s compliance with the 2015 deal.

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