Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, argued on June 26, 2026, that the United States should withdraw from the region entirely rather than risk being drawn back into conflict with Iran to enforce the ceasefire agreement. “It’s important to remember that no MOU is required for us to leave & to continue declaring victory,” Kent wrote on X, responding to a CENTCOM announcement of U.S. strikes on Iran. “President Trump’s MOU and the recent peace efforts have resonated with voters and brought tremendous relief. This war was very unpopular—the American people want the war to end and the SOH to stay open, not for us to get sucked back into a quagmire while trying to enforce an MOU.”
Kent continued: “If the MOU is honored by all sides and results in peace, that’s obviously a good thing. But an MOU that necessitates the resumption of military operations, dragging us back into war in order to enforce it, entirely defeats its intended purpose. Without a U.S. presence in the region, Iran can’t attack us and loses its leverage. It’s time to walk away.”
What Prompted the Strikes
Kent’s post responded to a CENTCOM statement announcing that U.S. forces had struck Iranian targets on June 26 in response to an Iranian drone attack on a commercial vessel the previous day. Stars and Stripes reported that U.S. aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran hit the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely with a one-way attack drone while it was exiting the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast. “The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said in its statement, adding that “Iran’s dangerous behavior undermined freedom of navigation as commerce increasingly flows through the vital international trade corridor.”
Trump’s Comments Before the Strikes
Trump addressed the incident shortly before the U.S. response. “I don’t like the fact that they took a shot yesterday, actually four of them,” Trump said at the White House, according to Stars and Stripes. Al Jazeera reported that Trump had separately called the Ever Lovely attack a “foolish violation” of the memorandum of understanding he signed with Iran on June 17. Trump declined Friday to say definitively whether Iran would face further consequences beyond the strikes already carried out.
Iran’s Retaliation
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded to the U.S. strikes by hitting American military installations in the region, according to a report cited by List25 covering CBS News’s coverage of the exchange, with the IRGC warning that any repeated aggression would prompt a wider response. Vice President JD Vance addressed the exchange directly, warning that “violence will be met with violence” and noting that Iran had signed a ceasefire agreement that it was now testing.
The Broader Strain on the Ceasefire
The exchange came as the fragile truce between the U.S. and Iran has faced mounting pressure on multiple fronts. Israel has continued striking Lebanon in the weeks since the memorandum was signed, a continuation of hostilities Iran has cited as a violation of the broader regional ceasefire the memorandum was meant to help stabilize. In response to the Lebanon strikes, Iran said the previous week that it would close the Strait of Hormuz again, before the Ever Lovely incident further escalated tensions. The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization had only begun evacuating roughly 600 ships and 11,000 stranded mariners from the Gulf two days before the drone strike, and paused that evacuation effort afterward as a safety precaution.
Why Kent’s Voice Carries Weight
Kent’s criticism is notable given his own history within the administration. Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in March 2026, becoming the highest-profile official to leave the Trump administration over the war. In his resignation letter, Kent wrote, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. 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, a retired Green Beret who served 11 combat deployments and whose wife was killed by an ISIS suicide bomber in Syria in 2019, framed his objection in personal terms, writing that he could not “support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people.”
Trump’s Response to Kent’s Resignation
Trump dismissed Kent’s resignation dismissively at the time. “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,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office, according to Al Jazeera. “When somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people. They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people.” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence and Kent’s former boss, distanced herself from his resignation, saying in a statement that “President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion.”
Context on Kent’s Broader Record
Kent’s tenure at the National Counterterrorism Center and his resignation drew scrutiny beyond the Iran war itself. CNN reported that Kent had previously clashed with other administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, after seeking access to FBI systems related to the investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and that NBC News reported he had pressed intelligence analysts to revise an assessment regarding the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to align more closely with the administration’s public position. Kent’s resignation letter also drew criticism for rhetoric some described as antisemitic, given his characterization of Israel and “its powerful American lobby” as having driven the U.S. into war.
Political science professor Paul Quirk of the University of British Columbia told Al Jazeera at the time of Kent’s resignation that it illustrated how Trump’s actions go “against the advice of the relevant military, intelligence and foreign affairs experts in government,” though Quirk expressed skepticism about how much practical impact Kent’s departure alone would have on the administration’s decision-making.
U.S. Military Posture in the Region
Despite the memorandum’s stated aim of de-escalation, the U.S. has maintained a substantial military presence in the region throughout the negotiating period. According to Stars and Stripes, U.S. assets in the area include two aircraft carriers, 17 guided-missile destroyers, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and more than a dozen air squadrons operating at sea — the same scale of forward presence Kent’s post argued should be withdrawn rather than maintained to enforce the agreement’s terms.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said separately on Friday that any Iranian pledge not to pursue a nuclear weapon would require “very strong” verification measures, underscoring that the more difficult, substantive questions about Iran’s nuclear program remained unresolved even as the immediate military exchange over the Ever Lovely attack played out.