Joe Kent, the former Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, urged President Donald Trump to end the hostilities with Iran as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran amid the latest round of missile strikes.
US Should ‘Walk Away’ From Iran
On Tuesday, Kent quoted a post on X by Obsidian Risk Advisors analyst Brett Erickson, who criticized the U.S. move to reinstate oil sanctions on Iran, calling it justified but “incredibly stupid” because it “destroys” the Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran.
Kent said with the MoU “effectively dead,” the U.S. was back to a military solution for the Strait of Hormuz. “The problem is that we signed the MOU because there was no military solution & we needed the SOH open,” Kent said. He then said that the best option for the U.S. would be to “just walk away.”
“If we walk Iran has no justification for targeting ships & we can use sanctions relief as our carrot,” he said, adding that both countries risked getting into a war with these “ineffective tit for tat strikes.”
Now that the MOU is effectively dead, as Brett explains below, we are back to attempting to find a military solution to the SOH.
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) July 8, 2026
The problem is that we signed the MOU because there was no military solution & we needed the SOH open.
Our best option is to just walk away.
If… https://t.co/cKCRpVeAIb
Kent had earlier resigned from his position as the Counterterrorism head, citing his opposition to the war with Iran, while also saying that the war was being driven by "pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."
Iran Accuses U.S. of Violating MoU
The comments come as Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Washington of violating the terms outlined in the MoU, including the reinstatement of oil sanctions.
The accusations come as the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said that it had struck 80 Iranian targets with missile strikes following Iran’s targeting of vessels traversing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, oil prices across the globe rose as tensions flared up between the U.S. and Iran. Notably, prices were already rising after refineries faced capacity woes.
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