(U.S. Senate) Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats - Iran continues to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and, with its primary terrorism partner, Lebanese Hizbullah, will pose a continuing threat to U.S. interests and partners worldwide. Iran is pursuing capabilities to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons. Iran's ballistic missiles are inherently capable of delivering WMD, and Tehran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic of Iran remains an enduring threat to U.S. national interests because of Iranian support to anti-U.S. terrorist groups and militants, the Assad regime, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and because of Iran's development of advanced military capabilities. We assess that Iran's leaders intend to leverage their ties to local actors in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to build long-term Iranian influence in the region. Iran continues to develop a range of new military capabilities to monitor and target U.S. and allied military assets in the region, including armed UAVs, ballistic missiles, advanced naval mines, unmanned explosive boats, submarines and advanced torpedoes, and anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles.
2017-05-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive