US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) responded to the resignation of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, saying that Kent was “very weak on security.”
Trump criticizes Joe Kent
Addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Trump remarked, “I always thought he was a nice guy,” adding, “It’s good that he’s out.” He criticized Kent for saying that Iran was not an immediate threat, arguing instead that Tehran had long been dangerous. Trump said every country recognizes the risk Iran poses, though the real question is whether they are willing to act on it.
Trump went on to claim that Iran has been a threat for many years and claimed that if he hadn’t scrapped the “terrible” nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, nuclear war could have happened four years ago. He added that without US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a nuclear catastrophe could unfold.
“When someone who works with us says they didn’t believe Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people,” Trump said.
Joe Kent resigns
Kent, a former military officer and intelligence officer who served during the Trump administration, resigned earlier in the day over the US war on Tehran. In a post on X, he wrote: “After much consideration, I have decided to resign my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center effective today. I cannot in good conscience support a continued war in Iran. Iran posed no immediate threat to our nation and it is clear that we entered this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
In his letter to Trump, Kent argued that disinformation efforts by senior Israeli officials and sections of the US media undermined Trump’s America First agenda. Referring to the war in Iraq, he accused Israel of using similar strategies that led to significant American casualties in that conflict.
US-Iran War
The United States and Israel carried out strikes on Iran on February 28, shortly after the conclusion of the third round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The attacks targeted key Iranian naval and military assets and reportedly killed several senior officials, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran responded with retaliatory strikes on Israel and US bases in the Gulf states, pushing the Middle East into a wider and renewed conflict.
There are no clear signs of de-escalation as the war has now entered its 18th day. Meanwhile, a move by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to close the Strait of Hormuz unsettled traders and rattled global energy markets on fears of oil supply disruptions. Oil prices rose to $120 a barrel on March 9 before easing, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to release 400 million barrels from its emergency stockpile to stabilize the situation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel said it had killed two senior Iranian figures in overnight strikes, including Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij forces, the IRGC’s internal security militia.
