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Kent says former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moderating Iran's nuclear program

By Aleena Fayaz and Samantha Waldenberg

Former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent said the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been moderating the country’s nuclear program ahead of his death.

“I’m no fan of the former supreme leader, you know, Ali Khamenei, however, he was moderating their nuclear program. He was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Kent told former Fox News host and influential conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson in his first interview since his resignation.

“If you take him out, if you kill him aggressively, people are going to rally around that regime,” Kent added.

Asked by Carlson if Iran was on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon, Kent replied,“No, they weren’t,” before adding that Iran’s strategy was “to not completely abandon the nuclear program.”

Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist as its supreme leader for nearly four decades, was killed last month in joint US and Israeli strikes.