David Sanger

It can reach parts of Europe.

It can reach American bases throughout the Middle East, and we have a lot of them.

And they have hit American bases at various moments in other conflicts.

These are not nuclear missiles.

They are conventional.

So there is definitely a threat there.

to Americans in the Middle East.

There is definitely a threat to American allies in the Middle East, Israel first among them.

And some of the Iranian missiles got through air defenses and anti-missile defenses back in June and killed some civilians in Israel.

So I wouldn't underestimate the power of their missile program, but they can't reach New York or Boston or any place close.

He is talking about two different things.

He's talking about nuclear weapons and he's talking about their conventional existing missile force.

And he frequently conflates the two.

But those are the two different threats and they are very different that he is discussing.

And by the way, if the Iranians ever made a nuclear weapon, and so far they have not, and it has taken them longer than any country, it probably wouldn't be for a warhead that could fit inside a missile.

It would probably be a crude weapon.

The other interesting way to think about this, Terry, is compare it to President Trump's big diplomatic effort, a failed effort in the first term that dealt with North Korea.

Now, what's the difference between the Iranian program and the North Korean program?

The Iranians have worked toward the goal of a nuclear weapon, we believe, based on the evidence.

The North Koreans got to nuclear weapons nearly 20 years ago, and they have now built up an arsenal of 60 or more.