Top US counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Kent, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Centre and a long-time Trump supporter, has announced his resignation from the role. He said he could not in good conscience back the administration's war. The BBC’s US State Department correspondent gives us more details on this development.
Also on the programme: At least 100 people are dead after a Pakistani airstrike hit an Afghan hospital; how Fijian bull sharks appear to have preferred swimming companions while avoiding others; and a man living close to the Ukrainian front line tells us what daily life is like as the war with Russia continues.
(Photo: Joe Kent speaking into a microphone. Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.4 | Hello, I'm Paul Henley. Welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. We're live from London. |
| 0:16.1 | Since the start of the Iran War two and a half weeks ago, disagreement within the US Republican Party has been |
| 0:21.8 | fairly muted. Today, a significant crack emerged. The head of the US National Counter-Terrorism |
| 0:28.4 | Centre, who is a long-time supporter of Donald Trump, has announced his resignation, |
| 0:33.3 | saying he couldn't in good conscience back the administration's war. In a letter to the president, Joe Kent said Iran posed no immediate threat to the US, |
| 0:42.6 | and it was clear Mr Trump had gone to war under pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. |
| 0:48.8 | Mr. Kent, who's a former Green Beret combat veteran, urged the president to change course. |
| 0:55.7 | Otherwise, he said the U.S. |
| 1:02.4 | would slip further towards decline and chaos. Donald Trump spoke about Mr. Kent to reporters today. |
| 1:10.2 | It's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is |
| 1:13.1 | whether or not they wanted to do something about it. And many people, many of the greatest |
| 1:18.0 | military scholars are saying for years that president should have taken out Iran because they |
| 1:23.0 | wanted a nuclear weapon. Earlier, our Washington correspondent Tom Bat Bateman, told me exactly who Joe Kent was and about |
| 1:29.8 | his role within the US government. |
| 1:32.6 | Well, Joe Kent is a 45-year-old, as you say, a former US Special Forces and CIA veteran. |
| 1:39.6 | He had run twice unsuccessfully for Congress and is a very strong Trump loyalist and got his moment in |
| 1:48.9 | office last year when he was nominated by Mr. Trump to become the director of the National |
| 1:54.4 | Counterterrorism Center, which is the job that he's now resigned from. I mean, he hasn't |
| 1:59.6 | been a prominent name within the Trump administration as, you know, over the last year and a half or so, but he held this very senior role. And his verdict, frankly, is damning because what he's saying here is that the U.S. government's basis for going to war, that Iran was an imminent threat to the United States, that that was a lie. And he's not, I mean, this isn't direct criticism of Mr. Trump, but instead he's suggesting |
| 2:23.4 | that Donald Trump was deceived by the Israelis and by the American media, he says, of |
| 2:28.9 | sort of abandoning his America first, the isolationist strain of his movement, and instead |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.