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Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent asserted in a post on X that prior to the start of the Iran war, the U.S. intelligence community agreed that the Islamic Republic was not developing a nuclear weapon.
“One of the many tragedies of this war is that before the war began the U.S. Intel Community, including CIA, was in agreement that Iran wasn’t developing a nuclear weapon & that Iran would target U.S. bases in the region & shut down the Strait of Hormuz if they were attacked by Israel & the U.S.,” Kent wrote in a post on Thursday.
“The IC also properly assessed that targeting the Iranian leadership would strengthen the regime and embolden the hardliners. Despite the professionalism & accuracy of the IC, the narrative & agenda spun by a foreign government- Israel, won the argument & forced us into this war,” he continued.
EX-COUNTERTERRORISM CHIEF SAYS TRUMP MUST RESTRAIN ISRAEL BEFORE HE CAN DECLARE VICTORY IN IRAN
Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 11, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We need to understand exactly how this happened to ensure we are never put in this position again,” he concluded.
Digital reached out to the White House on Friday for a response to Kent’s comments.
Kent resigned from the National Counterterrorism Center director role back in March.
WHAT ISRAEL WANTS FROM AN IRAN PEACE DEAL: NO ENRICHMENT, MISSILE LIMITS AND STRICT ENFORCEMENT
An Iranian flag is placed amid rubble and debris next to a destroyed residential building near Ferdowsi square in Tehran on March 3, 2026. (ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “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.”
In an April Truth Social post, President Donald Trump slapped down the notion that Israel convinced him to enter the war against Iran.
TRUMP PUSHES BACK AGAINST PUNDITS, SAYS ISRAEL DID NOT TALK HIM INTO THE IRAN WAR
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 7, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did,” the president wrote in part of the post, referring to the heinous Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack perpetrated against Israel.
