CIA Director John Brennan said the U.S. will “continue to keep pressure” on Iran in spite of the outcome of nuclear talks with the country.
Brennan explained in an interview for Fox News Sunday that Tehran realizes that there will be “tremendous costs and implications and consequences” if Iran doesn’t comply. “The nuclear program is one issue that we’re hoping to be able to halt; but we also see that Iran is still a country sponsor of terrorism,” said Brennan.
“We have to continue to keep pressure on Iran, whether there’s a deal or not, and to make sure that it is not able to continue to destabilize a number of the countries in the region”, added the CIA Director.
Brennan mentioned: “President Obama made it clear that we are going to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. So if they decide to take that path, they know that they will do so at their peril.”
Brennan also said that United States has learned from its past mistakes with Iran.
Brennan explained that Iran poses an equal threat to the United States as the Islamic State. The CIA director also spoke about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s push into Ukraine, cyber warfare and North Korea.
The CIA has come been criticized for failing to stop the spread of the Islamic State during the first months of 2014. Critics suggest the U.S. spy agency made a similar mistake when it misinterpreted Putin’s intentions in Ukraine and also when it allowed Iranian-backed rebels to push into Yemen.
Brennan said that American forces provided help to Iraq, but that “it is up to these countries’ military security and intelligence forces to step up.” According to Brenner, last year, U.S. drones have killed at least 139 Al Qaeda members. Brennan responded to criticism that by killing terrorists, the United States is losing valuable intelligence.
“There have been countless terrorists who have been captured, who have been arrested and detained, who have been debriefed and are providing intelligence insights into those terrorist organizations,” said Brennan.
The CIA director denied rumors that the U.S. was involved in the huge Internet outage in North Korea late last year after the Sony hacking scandal. Brennan said the fault liedon North Korea’s ”rickety” infrastructure, explaining there are many technical problems that go along with running a dated system.
Image Source: Politico
