Former US Counterterrorism Chief Cites Israeli Influence on Trump’s Iran War Decision

According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Joseph Kent, former Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, has revealed that political strategists advising President Donald Trump were significantly swayed by direct communications with numerous Israeli officials. This influence, he contends, superseded the assessments provided by the United States’ 18 intelligence agencies.

Kent, who stepped down from his position in opposition to the American-Israeli military action against Iran, stated that prior to President Trump’s decision to invade Iran, there was no substantive discussion regarding the matter at the level of deputy secretaries or within the National Security Council.

In his resignation letter to President Trump, Kent detailed how high-ranking Israeli officials and influential figures in American media had orchestrated a campaign to mislead public opinion. He argued that this campaign was used to deceive Trump into believing Iran posed an immediate threat to the United States. Kent characterized claims of a swift and decisive victory in an attack on Iran as a blatant falsehood, drawing a parallel to the same tactics employed by Israelis to draw the U.S. into the disastrous war in Iraq. He stressed the importance of not repeating such a mistake, stating his inability to support sending the nation’s youth into a war offering no benefit to the American people.