The immediate threat to the US does not come from Iran, but from Israel. This also answers the question of who is responsible for US policy in the Middle East.
This was stated by Joseph Kent, the former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned this week over the war in Iran. He gave an interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson (considered the most influential conservative and pro-Trump media outlet in the US, and until recently he himself was a strong supporter of Republican politics - ed.).
This is how Kent commented on the statements of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who stated that Iran is an immediate threat to the US. He stressed that there is "no intelligence" that Iran will launch a "major secret attack" against the US.
According to him, Israel dragged the US into a war against Iran because the decision to start it was the Israelis, "which we knew would trigger a series of events, which meant that the Iranians would retaliate. According to him, the Israeli government "felt emboldened" that war could begin and that the United States "would simply have to react."
Kent's words made it clear that Iran was not on the verge of creating a nuclear bomb, neither three weeks ago, when the war began, nor in June 2025, during the previous strikes by Israel and the United States.
He specified that the Iranian government has had a decree in force since 2004 that prohibits Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. "We had no intelligence to show that the decree was not being followed", Kent added, describing the Iranian strategy as "actually quite pragmatic".
Joe Kent also commented on the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pointing out that it did not benefit the US and only emboldened his supporters.
"I don't think the ayatollah was afraid of death. Not because he was some crazy lunatic, but because he knew that if he was killed, the regime would survive," he explained, emphasizing that he was not a fan of Ali Khamenei, "but he moderated their nuclear program. He was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon.
Joseph Kent also said that on the eve of the war against Iran, "a lot of the key decision-makers were not allowed to come and express their opinions" to President Donald Trump.
"They held this discussion, you know, behind closed doors, and there was no chance for dissenting voices to come in", he stressed.
According to him, he spoke directly with Trump before submitting his resignation. "I spoke with him before I left the administration. It went great. I mean, not the best conversation ever. You know, I told him why I was leaving. He listened to me.".
Kent also said that he supports the policies that were in Trump's campaign, but now he believes the president was deceived into supporting "disastrous" a decision reminiscent of the Iraq War.
"As an 11-time combat veteran and a Gold Star-winning husband who lost his beloved wife Shannon in a war provoked by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that does not benefit the American people," Joseph Kent added.