A statement Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made during a House hearing last week on Iran's nuclear program alarmed Israeli defense and intelligence officials to the point they protested and asked the Biden administration for clarifications, four Israeli officials told Axios.
Driving the news: Milley, testifying before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said that the U.S. "remains committed as a matter of policy that Iran will not have a fielded nuclear weapon." The word "fielded" created the impression among Israeli officials that the U.S. had changed its policy on Iran and would tolerate Tehran having a nuclear weapons program, the four sources said.
