- By Raju Kumar
- Thu, 19 Mar 2026 11:30 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
US-Iran War: Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned, has been critical of the Trump administration on the US-Israel war with Iran, which entered its 20th day on Thursday. Kent exposed US President Donald Trump's war policy, saying Iran posed no imminent threat to America. He also asserted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu influenced Trump and misassessed the Iran threat to the US.
Kent, a former Green Beret and political candidate with connections to right-wingers, was in charge of an agency tasked with analysing and detecting terrorist threats. His resignation demonstrates that the unease about the war within Trump's base extends to at least one senior member of his Republican administration.
'Pressure From Israel And Its Powerful American Lobby'
Citing his concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran, he said, "I cannot in good conscience back the Trump administration's war. "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby," Kent said in a statement posted on social media.
How Israel Dragged The US To War?
Explaining Israel's role in the war, Kent said the Israelis drove the decision to take this action as the Netanyahu government feels emboldened that they could start a war and the US would just have to react. He asserted that Israelis knew that the attack on Iran would set off a series of events.
While speaking to a right-wing podcaster, Tucker Carlson, he said Trump and his senior officials believed that Iran's nuclear programme posed an imminent threat to American national security, which did not exist. Trump had claimed that Iran was just two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon, which posed an existential threat to the US and Israel.
He further said they weren't three weeks ago when the war started, and they weren't in June (last year when the US-Israel bombed) either.
Trump's former counterterrorism chief said that since 2004, Iran's Islamic regime has had a fatwa – or edict – in place that bars them from developing a nuclear weapon. "We had no intelligence to indicate that fatwa was being disobeyed," Kent said, calling the Iranian strategy "actually pretty pragmatic."
'Ayatollah's Killing Backfired'
Highlighting the Trump administration's wrong decision, he said the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not work in the US's favour, if fact, it emboldened his hardline supporters.
'Weak On Security': Trump On Kent's Exit
Reacting to the resignation of his colleague, Kent, Trump said his exit was "a good thing". Answering a reporter's query on Joe Kent's resignation, the President said, "I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security. But when I read his statement, I realised that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Every country realised what a threat Iran was..."