Michael Gabriel Hernandez
23 January 2025•Update: 23 January 2025
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump will appoint his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as the point person for his administration's diplomatic efforts vis-a-vis Iran, according to a report published Thursday.Trump is willing to first try diplomacy with Tehran before any effort to apply pressure on the Islamic Republic, anonymous sources told the Financial Times newspaper. The approach marks a significant departure from Trump's first term when, led by Iran hawks like former National Security Advisor John Bolton, the president pursued a "maximum pressure campaign" in an ultimately futile effort to bring Iran back to negotiations on its nuclear program.
Trump in 2018 unliterally withdrew the US from the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that Iran struck with six world powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US. The EU was also a signatory on the agreement that saw Tehran receive billions of dollars in international sanctions relief in return for accepting unprecedented curbs and inspections on its nuclear program.
He went on to impose wave after wave of sanctions on Iran that not only failed to curtail Iranian nuclear activity, but resulted in Tehran ratcheting up its enrichment efforts. Tensions were further heightened when Trump signed off on the 2020 assassination of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leader Qasem Soleimani.
Witkoff currently serves as Trump's senior official for the Middle East, playing a role in negotiations under the Biden administration that brought a ceasefire to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday in exchange for the release of several Israeli hostages who had been held in captivity since a Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Trump's team used the transition period to draw up plans to reinstate the "maximum pressure" campaign, including by either imposing new economic policies on Tehran or more stringently enforcing sanctions that are already in place. Trump is, however, seeking to avoid a larger conflict with Iran, and anonymous officials told the Financial Times that Witkoff is expected to test the waters on a potential diplomatic breakthrough.
“I don’t see the administration using force at the beginning of their term before at least trying to exhaust other means. This does not fit with the approach that war started with Biden, and he’s going to end them,” an anonymous Israeli official told the newspaper.
Still, plans remain incomplete, and Trump's team includes a variety of voices on Iran, including some like National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and senator-turned-Secretary of State Marco Rubio who have favored a more hardline approach to Iran.
Iran hawks on Capitol Hill have voiced weariness about Witkoff's potential new remit, suggesting he would be too eager to loosen international pressure on Iran.
“He’s already lifting pressure on Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran, and in the process abandoning American hostages and endangering Israel,” a senior Republican congressional staffer told the Times. “He keeps saying he knows what Trump wants, but he doesn’t understand what Trump believes.”
