United States top counter-terrorism official, Joe Kent, who recently resigned from his post, said US intelligence found no evidence that Iran was pursuing an actual weapon.
He pointed to a 2004 religious ruling, or fatwa, issued by the Iranian leadership forbidding the development of nuclear arms. He said the intelligence community had “no indication” that it was being violated or was about to be lifted.
He added that Iran had deliberately stopped short of weaponization but did not completely abandon its nuclear program, having drawn lessons from the fate of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who gave up his nuclear program and was later ousted and killed.
Kent also took direct aim at the war’s origins, saying the US launched its strikes not because of any Iranian aggression but because Israel had already decided to act, forcing Washington to move first to shield its own troops from the fallout.
“The Israelis drove the decision,” he said, questioning whether the US was truly in control of its own foreign policy.
“Who’s in charge of our policy in the Middle East. Who’s in charge of when we decided to go to war?” he said.
Kent argued that the US should have threatened to withhold defense aid to stop Israel’s offensive, noting that “the Israelis felt emboldened that no matter what they did, no matter what situation they put us in, that they could go ahead and take this action and we would just have to react.
Kent, a 20-year US Army Special Forces combat veteran and former CIA paramilitary officer before leading the counterterrorism agency, made the remarks in an interview with prominent American conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson a day after stepping down.
At the center of Kent’s argument was a deliberate reframing of US policy. He said the original red line preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon left “a lot of trade space” for a negotiated deal, but that benchmark was quietly replaced.
“If your goal is to move us away from any kind of deal, and your goal is to move us into a conflict, you have to shift that red line,” he said.
He said the new benchmark, blocking any uranium enrichment, was pushed by Washington think tanks, “pro-Israeli lobbyists” and Israeli government officials, until “enrichment basically became the new US policy,” effectively closing the door on diplomacy. Kent also raised questions about the investigation into right-wing American activist and influencer Charlie Kirk’s death, suggesting it was cut short.
He said the killing of Kirk — one of US President Donald Trump’s closest advisers and a vocal opponent of war with Iran who had reportedly advocated for the US to at least rethink its relationship with Israel — deserved further scrutiny.
“He was suddenly publicly assassinated, and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that,” he said.
“There are unanswered questions,” he said, adding the probe was stopped before his team could “run down” remaining leads.
Administration officials had long labeled Kent a “known leaker” and barred him from presidential briefings, sources told the outlet.
He was suspected of passing information to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and at least one other podcaster. The FBI is also examining leaked intelligence related to Iran and Israel, according to one source.