Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 17: In a major setback to the United States President Donald Trump, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced on Tuesday that he has resigned owing to the ongoing war with Iran.
Once a staunch backer of Trump who championed for him and his foreign policies in US presidential races in 2016, 2020, and 2024, Joe Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and that the war was started due to the “pressure” from Israel. Kent said he took the decision after “much reflection.”
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. 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 wrote in a letter addressed to the United States President Donald Trump.
In the letter, Kent expressed his disappointment over the ongoing war between the United States, Israel and Iran and said it served “no benefit” to the people of America. Kent shares that he lost his wife Shannon in a similar war and is himself a veteran who was deployed to combat 11 times.
“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” he wrote in the letter.
Kent said until June 2025, Trump “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.” “In your first administration, you understood better than any modern President how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars. You demonstrated this by killing Qasam Solamani and by defeating ISIS,” Kent wrote in the letter directly addressing the US President.
Kent then suggested Trump was deceived into the war and believing that Iran is a threat by an “echo chamber” consisting of high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media through a “misinformation campaign.” “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory,” Kent wrote.
“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” he added. “I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards. It was an honour to serve in your administration and to serve our great nation.”
Meanwhile, Israel claimed that Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief, was among those targeted in Israeli strikes on Iran overnight. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has claimed that Larijani has been killed. Iran has, however, not yet commented on the reports. Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator who serves as secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, is widely seen as one of the most influential figures in Iran’s power structure.
Larijani was reportedly last seen in public during Quds Day rallies in Tehran on Friday. Later that day, the US offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including Larijani, as part of a list of 10 figures linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Multiple Israeli media outlets also said the strikes targeted Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij Resistance Force, and other senior Basij figures, with the outcome of the strikes still being assessed. Iran, however, did not immediately acknowledge the militia leader’s death.
Meanwhile, Iran’s state media, Press TV, on Tuesday issued a statement attributed to Larijani, where Iran’s security chief slammed Donald Trump. “47 years ago, on the eve of the people’s victory in the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the prime minister of the Pahlavi regime claimed that the sound of the massive crowds chanting in the streets was not real but rather the sound of a tape recording! Now Trump says about the millions-strong anti-American and anti-Israeli gatherings in Iranian cities that these images are artificial intelligence,” the statement read.
In another development, falling shrapnel from an intercepted missile killed a Pakistani national in Abu Dhabi’s Bani Yas area, the government media office said on Tuesday. As Israel and Iran exchanged a fresh wave of strikes, several explosions echoed across Dubai and Qatari capital Doha early on Tuesday.
An unknown projectile struck a tanker 23 nautical miles east of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) causing minor structural damage, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Tuesday. A fire also broke out in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone following an Iranian drone attack. No injuries were reported in both incidents.
A wave of drone and rocket attacks targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi security sources said, describing it as the most intense assault since the attacks began, with at least five drones used.