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-upped its drone production during the ceasefire." She questioned if Trump administration officials were reflecting on whether "the ceasefire being dragged out now, weeks and weeks, is giving Iran these capabilities."
Cohen confirmed that was the case — but not something that Trump has acknowledged in public.
"That's something that we hear from sources and U.S. officials in private, 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 as you mentioned, we reported that the Iranians have been using this time the ceasefire to reconstitute many of their military capabilities. And it's already restarted production on some of these attack drones that, as we're seeing today, are capable of taking down an Apache helicopter, also a threat to U.S. Navy ships and commercial ships alike."
