After Gaza ceasefire success, Trump and Witkoff eye Iran nuke deal – National & International News
Trump and Witkoff want to remake the Middle East through peace-for-trade deals, and war hawks in Washington and Israel are furious about it.
Following his success in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has just expanded his brief to Iran, the Financial Times reports. Trump’s directive to Witkoff is to negotiate a new nuclear deal. It’s a surprising shift, given that it was Trump who unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2017. The JCPOA, negotiated during the Obama administration, offered Iran significant sanctions in exchange for close monitoring of its nuclear program to ensure Iran was not enriching uranium to weapons grade.
Since Trump’s withdrawal, Iran has been steadily increasing the enrichment of its uranium. While there is no sign that Iran is attempting to create weapons grade uranium at present, analysts say that they would be only weeks should they decide to pursue it.
The Biden administration made limited progress in its attempts to renegotiate a deal in 2021. Trump and Witkoff have a unique opportunity to do so now. Last summer, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian was voted in with a mandate to improve ties with the West. He also has the blessing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei to reopen nuclear negotiations.
Witkoff’s statements on Iran
Witkoff recently appeared on Fox News and spoke about Trump’s stance on Iran. He said that while the goal was to prevent “a nuclear arms race in the Middle East” at all costs, they preferred to settle the matter diplomatically. If there is no diplomatic solution, “then the alternative is not necessarily a good one,” Witkoff said.
The alternative he referred to is a potential military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu has made no secret that he prefers this option. In fact, he heavily influenced Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA in 2017.
Netanyahu is not the only one likely to be unhappy with Witkoff’s expanded portfolio. Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans, including newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, maintain a much more hawkish stance on Iran. In the Financial Times story, an anonymous senior Republican staffer expressed the displeasure shared by many Iran hawks in Washington. “[Witkoff] is already lifting pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and in the process abandoning American hostages and endangering Israel”. This is rather a bizarre assertion as no hostages would have been freed without a ceasefire in place. The staffer added cryptically, “[Witkoff] keeps saying he knows what Trump wants, but he doesn’t understand what Trump believes”.
On the contrary, Trump has said he was pleased with Witkoff’s work on Gaza, even if he was skeptical the ceasefire deal would hold. It was apparently because of this success that Trump said Witkoff was “certainly someone I would use” to get a deal with Iran. “He’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said, adding, “Steve has a wonderful way about him”.
Witkoff says ceasefire key to Trump’s Middle East vision
It was announced earlier this week that Witkoff would be visiting Gaza as part of an “inspection team” to monitor adherence to the terms of the ceasefire. Witkoff would be the highest-ranking US official to visit Gaza in decades, certainly since Hamas was elected in 2005.
In another Fox News interview, Witkoff was asked about a recent statement from senior Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Abu Marzook told the New York Times, “We’re prepared for a dialogue with America and achieving understandings on everything”. Witkoff responded positively to the statement. “We were able to demonstrate that President Trump’s policies, peace through strength, they work”.
Witkoff is committed to seeing the full three-phase deal through to completion. In the interview, Witkoff laid out his and Trump’s vision to remake the Middle East by fostering economic cooperation and investment throughout the region. This would include normalization of ties between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“Normalization is an amazing opportunity for the region. It’s basically the beginning of the end of war, and the beginning of the end of war means the entire region becomes investable. It becomes financiable,” Witkoff said. “Banks do not have to underwrite whether the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas is going to fire a missile and take down a hyper scale data center”.
Witkoff sees successful completion of the ceasefire deal as a necessary first step before this vision could move forward. From there, he said, more dialogue would be possible. Saudi Arabia has recently declared that it would only consider normalization with Israel when there was a credible path to a Palestinian state, but Witkoff did not comment on this specifically.
Washington and Israel hawks don’t want peace
If Witkoff and Trump succeed in seeing this vision through, it will be over the objections of hawkish hardline elements both in the US and Israel. While most would see this as a promising development, some have expressed dismay at Witkoff’s apparent ambition to open a new, more peaceful chapter in the Middle East. Philip Klein, editor of the influential conservative publication National Review Online, commented on Twitter about Witkoff’s statements to Fox News: “this whole interview is a train wreck. He needs to be fired– like 2 weeks ago”.
Republican insiders have also voiced concerns anonymously to Jewish Insider, a pro-Israel publication about other Trump appointees who have dared to express skepticism about the necessity or desirability for a confrontation with Iran, or the continued US military entrenchment in the Middle East generally. Former Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell went so far as to go on the record to call on Trump to reconsider his war skeptic picks.
In Israel, stumbling blocks to peace go beyond a war of words. Witkoff reportedly had to strong arm Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get him to agree to the Gaza ceasefire. Since the deal was signed, Israel has violated the ceasefire on several occasions, but so far it Hamas has not risen to the bait. Despite the deal making it possible to recover all the hostages, many in Israel see the deal as a defeat because Hamas remains in power. Netanyahu has stated publicly that his intent is to continue fighting after the first 42-day phase is complete. By that time, only 33 of Israel’s 100 or so remaining hostages will have been released.
Israel is also carrying out belligerent actions elsewhere that will put the ceasefire to the test. In the West Bank, Israeli forces have carried out an all-out onslaught on the city of Jenin, a hub of armed Palestinian resistance. Dozens of people have been killed and Palestinian hospitals have been targeted.
Furthermore, Israel’s 60-day ceasefire with Lebanon is set to conclude next week. Under the terms of the deal, Israel was required to remove all its forces from Lebanese territory. However, Israel’s war cabinet has apparently decided to maintain military positions in Lebanon. Israel has also violated the ceasefire multiple times each day since it was signed in late November- over 1,000 times in the first month alone.
