president Donald Trump Claiming Iran was building missiles that could “soon reach the U.S. mainland,” he repeated the claim in a video message US military launches military strike and in his State of the Union address. But according to CNN, U.S. intelligence assessments currently do not support this claim.
Sources familiar with the intelligence findings told CNN there is no evidence that Iran is currently actively pursuing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program aimed at attacking the United States. An unclassified 2025 Defense Intelligence Agency assessment said Iran could develop a “militarily viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 if it chose to develop one, but that timeline would extend by nearly a decade.
What Trump and his team have said
Trump and senior administration officials defended the latest attack, saying it was an upgraded missile that nuclear threat From Tehran.
Officials briefing reporters after the attack said Iran posed an “intolerable risk” due to its development of long-range missiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not speculate on how close Iran is to achieving an intercontinental ballistic missile, but insisted Tehran was “definitely” moving in that direction. He also viewed Iran’s refusal to discuss its ballistic missile program in recent indirect talks as “a big problem.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNN that the president is right to be concerned that Iran may possess intercontinental ballistic missiles.
What intelligence and experts indicate
Three sources said there have been no changes to recent intelligence assessments of Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile ambitions, CNN reported.
While Iran possesses a large number of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, U.S. bases in the region and parts of Europe, there is no intelligence that it is imminently capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told India Today TV that Tehran “deliberately limits the range of our missiles to 2,000 kilometers,” calling it defensive.
The nuclear issue is also controversial.
Matthew Bunn of the Harvard Kennedy School told USA TODAY that claims that Iran is on the verge of building a nuclear weapon are exaggerated, saying: “It’s not true.”
U.S. officials acknowledge that Iran has uranium enriched to a purity of 60 percent and can technically be refined further. However, CNN and USA Today quoted analysts as saying that rebuilding enrichment facilities damaged in previous attacks would take far longer than a week.
