Trump will give Iran ‘a bunch of hostages’ if he sends troops to Kharg: Ex-US official

Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Centre who recently resigned in protest over the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against Iran, has issued a stern warning against sending troops to seize Iran’s Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.

In remarks to the Washington Post, Kent said, “any sort of occupation of Kharg Island would not be considered a strategic move, but instead could be disastrous and expose US troops to deep danger there and elsewhere in the region.”

“It would essentially be giving Iran a bunch of hostages on an island that they could barrage with drones and missiles,” Kent added.

Trump has indicated that he left the door open to deploying US forces to Kharg, home to Iran’s oil export terminals. Iranian officials have warned that the move will significantly increase American military casualties.

“I think we thought we were past that,” Kent said, “and then, sure enough.”

Kent informed the White House of his departure last Monday, seeking to meet Trump and tender his resignation in person.

Later in the day, Kent said, he spoke on the telephone with Trump.

Kent stated that “Iran was not an imminent threat to the US” and that the “powerful Israeli lobby forced” the US president into launching the war of aggression against Iran.

“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 wrote in his resignation letter.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier claimed that the United States had begun the war in part because US officials knew that Israel was about to attack anyway, and the administration expected that Iran would retaliate against US facilities in the region.

Trump disputed the statement, saying the decision to strike was his alone and that he may have forced Israel to act.

Kent further warned Trump against attacking Iranian energy infrastructure, stressing such a move would destabilize the entire region.

Meanwhile, United Nations experts strongly denounced the ongoing US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran as a flagrant violation of international law.

In a joint statement, the experts stressed that the unprovoked attack by the United States and Israel on Iran is entirely illegal under international law and constitutes an act of aggression.

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