U.S. President Trump Rips Into Domestic Intelligence Agencies Over Differences On Iran

United States President Donald Trump ripped into his domestic intelligence agencies, describing as “naïve” and “wrong” their collective assessment of the threat posed by Iran. “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!,” the American leader quipped in a series of tweets after top officials—among them the heads of the CIA and FBI—challenged the White House’s position that the Iranian regime is pursuing nuclear weapons. President Trump last May withdrew from the 2015 atomic accord forged between Tehran and six world powers and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic. In a hearing on global threats held by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the officials also questioned President Trump’s assertion that the Islamic State has been defeated in Syria, the basis for his decision to pull-out American troops from the war-torn country. The internal American dispute prompted external intervention from Iran’s foreign minister, who denounced President Trump for listening to “warmongers” in his administration and “the Israelis” instead of towing the line of the European Union, United Nations and the former Obama White House. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani conceded Wednesday that his nation is facing “the greatest pressure and economic sanctions of the past 40 years” and urged the public to blame Washington and its allies and not “the Islamic system.”