The head of US intelligence has declined again to endorse President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran posed an “imminent” threat before the United States and Israel launched military strikes, AFP reports.

Testifying on the war in the Middle East before the House Intelligence Committee, Tulsi Gabbard has doubled down on her claim from a day earlier that this determination is “the responsibility of the president” — a position that had already drawn sharp pushback from Democrats.

“The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the President of the United States,” Gabbard has said, facing immediate pushback from the Senate panel.

When asked if there was an imminent threat from Iran despite its nuclear enrichment programme being “obliterated” and no efforts to rebuild, Gabbard responded: “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat.”