Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, in Portland, Oregon, on October 7, 2024. JENNY KANE / AP
A senior US counterterrorism official resigned on Tuesday, March 17 to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran and said the Islamic Republic posed no imminent threat to the United States. "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran," Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump.
Kent – a former member of the Green Beret special forces who served multiple combat tours – said "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 is the first senior US official to resign from the Trump administration to protest the war against Iran. "Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation," Kent said in his letter to Trump.
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