‘Iran War exposes fault lines in Trump’s team’

This is apropos a letter to Editor headlined ‘Iran War exposes fault lines in Trump’s team’ carried by the newspaper yesterday.

As external support weakens, internal dissent within the US national security apparatus is beginning to surface. The resignation of Joe Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has added a dramatic new dimension to the crisis. In a blunt and unprecedented statement, Kent declared that the war was initiated under pressure from Israel and that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States. His resignation is not merely a personnel change; it signals a fracture within the very institutions responsible for shaping and executing US security policy.

At the same time, developments on the battlefield are intensifying the stakes. The killing of Ali Larijani in an Israeli airstrike near Tehran represents one of the most significant escalations in the conflict. Iranian authorities confirmed that Larijani—along with his son, aides, and bodyguards—was killed in what Israel described as a “precise strike.” Larijani had emerged as a central figure in Iran’s wartime leadership, particularly after the earlier reported killing of Ali Khamenei at the start of the campaign.

These targeted killings reflect a strategy aimed at decapitating Iran’s leadership structure. However, unlike past conflicts in Iraq or Libya, Iran’s political system is built with layers of succession. Leadership losses, while symbolically significant, have not resulted in systemic collapse. Instead, they appear to be producing a new generation of leadership—more aggressive, more reactive, and less constrained by the caution that often accompanies experience.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026