Joe Kent, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in opposition to the war with Iran, said on Sunday that the demand for Iran to give up all nuclear enrichment was a “poison pill” that appeared to be responsible for the lack of a deal after US-Iran talks in Pakistan.
“It appears that the zero enrichment poison pill killed the Islamabad negotiations yesterday. We have 9 more days in this ceasefire to fix this, but we must pursue our goals not Israel’s,” Kent wrote in a post on X.
According to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, a former IDF intelligence officer, the US demands for Iran include ending all uranium enrichment, dismantling all major nuclear facilities, and retrieving the uranium enriched at the 60% level, conditions that Tehran has repeatedly rejected.
Since his resignation, Kent has pointed out in interviews that the US has adopted the position of conflating any nuclear enrichment with developing a nuclear weapon, even though before the war, Tehran was willing to dilute its uranium enriched at 60% to lower levels and was willing to reduce enrichment levels down far below the 90% needed for weapons-grade. Iran was also reportedly willing to suspend uranium enrichment for three to five years since the June 2025 US airstrikes had paused its enrichment program.
The conflation of enrichment with weapons proliferation was demonstrated in Vice President JD Vance’s remarks to the press after the talks he held with Iranian officials in Islamabad. “The simple fact is: We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
It has long been the official policy of the Iranian government that it will not pursue nuclear weapons, something noted by Kent. “Trump’s redline has always been no nuclear weapons for Iran, not zero enrichment. Iran agrees with this and has not sought to develop or obtain a nuke since 2003 but needs to retain the ability to enrich for their “not Saddam but not Qaddafi” policy to work,” he said.
Kent said that there was a “workable” deal between the US and Iran, but that such an arrangement was a “threat” to Israel’s desire to get the US to continue waging war with Iran. He also raised the possibility of Israel using a nuclear weapon.
“Israel needs us chasing every trace of uranium in Iran because that ensures we stay engaged militarily in Iran, because how do we ever fully make sure Iran can’t enrich without taking out the regime? This is the recipe for an endless bloody war or supporting/turning a blind eye to Israel using a WMD on Iran,” Kent said. “Restrain Israel, get a deal, open the [Strait of Hormuz], focus on saving our Republic, not playing empire.”
