Former CIA director John Brennan is due to brief House Democrats on the situation in Iran next Tuesday, the Associated Press quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The private caucus meeting will also be attended by Wendy Sherman, a former State Department official who was the top negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
READ MORE: US Reportedly Gave Out Number Iran Can Use to Reach Trump Amid Soaring Tensions
The sources said that the gathering “offers counter-programming” to the Trump administration's closed-door Capitol Hill briefing for lawmakers, which is also slated for Tuesday.
Brennan’s briefing comes amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran which deteriorated in early May following the Islamic Republic’s suspension of its participation in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The US, in turn, imposed more anti-Iranian sanctions and sent the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier's strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers and a battery of Patriot missiles to the Middle East.
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US National Security Advisor John Bolton described the deployment as a response to the “troubling and escalatory indications” of Iranian activity in the region. Iran condemned US sabre-rattling as “psychological warfare”, expressing its readiness to retaliate against a potential military conflict.
At the same time, the New York Times quoted several unnamed senior US officials as saying that “[President Donald] Trump was firm in saying he did not want a military clash with the Iranians.”
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also ruled out the possibility of war between the two nations, arguing that the US knows that “war will not be in their interest”.
READ MORE: US ‘Not Seeking a Fight’ with Iran, But Ready to Use ‘Unrelenting Force’
Brennan, who resigned in 2017, also bickered openly with Trump over issues related to Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, which ultimately found that there was no collusion between Trump and Russian officials.
