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Trump: "I've been doing deals for a long time"
05:06 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, says the U.S. retains a robust ability to monitor Tehran

He calls the influx of refugees out the Middle East to Europe a "disaster of biblical proportions"

Washington CNN  — 

America’s top spy said Wednesday he is confident any cheating by Iran on the deal curbing its nuclear program will be detected despite dire warnings to the contrary by Republicans on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, told an audience in Washington on Wednesday that the intelligence community retains a robust ability to monitor Tehran’s compliance with all aspects of the deal.

“I come away pretty confident, I won’t say a hundred percent – you should never say that – but pretty confident” in the ability of the nation’s spy services to “observe and monitor what the Iranians are doing,” he said.

Trump, Cruz thump Iran nuclear deal at Capitol Hill rally

Clapper spoke at the opening of the Intelligence and National Security Summit that will bring together leaders of the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies as well as officials from other government agencies and private enterprise.

“Given a choice between a state sponsor of terrorism with nuclear capability and a state sponsor of terrorism without it, I’d probably take the latter,” Clapper said.

He also referred to “independent capabilities” that would allow the United States to have “good insight into the nuclear industrial enterprise in Iran, if I can call it that.”

With respect to the flow of refugees from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East into Europe, Clapper said the current migration is a “disaster of biblical proportions” that poses an opportunity for terrorist groups such as ISIS to “infiltrate operatives among these refugees.”