A senior US counter-terrorism official resigned on Tuesday to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran and said the Islamic Republic posed no imminent threat to the United States.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump.

Kent — a former member of the Green Beret special forces who served multiple combat tours — said “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 is the first senior US official to resign from the Trump administration to protest the war against Iran.

“Until June of 2025, you 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,” Kent said in his letter to Trump.

“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,” he said.

“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,” he said.

“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,” Kent said.

“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 added.

Some ​experts have said an imminent threat would be required ​for the United States to launch a war under current law.

Intelligence officials were ​caught off guard ​by the ⁠news. Kent is close with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has kept ​a low profile since the Iran war ​began.

⁠Gabbard has not issued any public statements and has only appeared in public during the dignified transfer of American ⁠soldiers ​killed earlier this month during the ​conflict with Iran.

Trump reacted to the resignation, saying that Joseph was “very weak on security” and it’s a “good thing” that he stepped down.

“I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.

He said that when he saw Kent’s resignation statement, “I realised that it’s a good thing that he’s out. “