Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he has “moderate confidence” the US can monitor Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement in an interview with CNN aired on Friday’s “Situation Room.”
Clapper was asked, “With regard to Iran, why does the intelligence community have confidence it could track Iran’s nuclear program in light of past failures, for instance with India’s and Pakistan’s? Why the confidence now?”
He answered, “Well, let me see, the confidence. We were required by the Congress to provide a rather detailed assessment, rather classified assessment of exactly what we could and couldn’t do. We were very conservative in that assessment. So yes, there are some things we can do pretty well, but we also knowledge that there are other things like plans and intentions of the leadership that have been difficult with Iran anyway and will continue to be. So, I’d say we have moderate confidence that we can monitor compliance with the agreement.”
Clapper added, “it depends on what the issue is. And i’m just giving you a kind of an overall summery, some areas we’re — we think are quite high, and others not so much. and it depends … the iranians and we’ve said this, as well, will exploit every ambiguity they can in the agreement.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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