Trump administration officials have expressed in private that they are concerned that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran has given Tehran a chance to recover from previous attacks, CNN reported on Tuesday.
CNN senior reporter Zachary Cohen said that as President Donald Trump responded to a downed Apache helicopter that was patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to retaliate, behind-the-scenes sources said this issue had been raised.
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar asked Cohen about a recent report that Iran had started to build drones again and "re-uppedits drone production during theceasefire." She questioned if Trump administration officials were reflecting on whether "the ceasefire being dragged outnow, weeks and weeks, is giving Iran these capabilities."
Cohen confirmed that was the case — but not something that Trump has acknowledged in public.
"That'ssomething that we hear fromsources and U.S. officials inprivate, for sure," Cohen said.
"But we have not heard the president in particular, or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, voice a similar concern, really painting a more optimistic and a more confident view of the damage that the U.S. military has inflicted on the Iranians' capabilities," Cohen added. "But asyou mentioned, we reported thatthe Iranians have been usingthis time the ceasefire toreconstitute many of theirmilitary capabilities. And it'salready restarted production onsome of these attack drones that, aswe're seeing today, are capableof taking down an Apachehelicopter, also a threat toU.S. Navy ships and commercialships alike."