Kent says US intel community agreed before war that Iran wasn’t developing nuke

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent claimed in an article on

“One of the many tragedies of this war is that before the war began, the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, agreed that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon and that Iran would target U.S. bases in the region and close the Strait of Hormuz if they were attacked by Israel and the United States,” Kent wrote in an article Thursday.

“The IC also correctly assessed that targeting Iranian leaders would strengthen the regime and embolden hardliners. Despite the professionalism and precision of the IC, the narrative and agenda crafted by a foreign government, Israel, won the argument and forced us into this war,” he continued.

Former 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, DC, December 11, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We need to understand exactly how this happened to ensure we never find ourselves in this situation again,” he concluded.

Fox News Digital contacted the White House on Friday for a response to Kent’s comments.

Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in March.

WHAT ISRAEL EXPECTS FROM A PEACE AGREEMENT WITH IRAN: 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, 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 under pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

In an April article on Truth Social, President Donald Trump rejected the idea that Israel convinced him to go to war with Iran.

Trump pushes back against experts, says Israel didn’t talk to him in 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, DC, April 7, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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“Israel never convinced me to participate in war with Iran, the results of October 7, coupled with my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did it,” the president wrote in part of the message, referring to the heinous October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel.