Director of National Intelligence: US, Israel differ on Iran objectives

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that the objectives laid out by the US and Israeli governments for the war against Iran “are different,” adding that she does not know if Israel would support making a deal with Iran.

“We can see through the operations that the Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership and taking out several members, obviously beginning with the Ayatollah, the supreme leader, and they continue to focus on that effort,” Gabbard said at the House Intelligence Committee’s Worldwide Threats hearing on March 19, CNN reports.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump “has stated that his objectives are to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their Navy, the IRGC Navy and mine-laying capability,” she said.

Gabbard said she doesn’t “know Israel’s position” on making a deal with Iran nor would she say if she agreed that Israel had “ignored” the president on striking Iran’s energy infrastructure.

“I’m not privy to any of their deliberations or what went into their calculus and launching this or other attacks,” Gabbard said. “We are not involved with the, in the operational element of this. We’re providing continuously, on a daily basis, the intelligence assessments of the events that are occurring.”

By Sabina Mammadli