Trump’s Envoys and the Failure to Turn Negotiations into Peace

By Elijah J. Magnier

Donald Trump entrusted negotiations over Iran and Gaza to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, assuming trusted dealmakers could deliver where conventional diplomacy had struggled. Assess their record against the requirements of the disputes they were assigned: understanding the counterpart, accurately interpreting proposals, securing reciprocal commitments, and ensuring agreements change conditions on the ground. However, commercial experience does not establish competence in any of these areas. A business background may provide bargaining skills, but cross-cultural diplomacy requires a separate understanding of political institutions, historical grievances, sovereignty, and what each party takes concessions to mean. Nuclear negotiations demand additional technical knowledge. Neither wealth nor proximity to the president supplies it.

The issue matters because an envoy’s interpretation can shape whether a president sees a proposal as negotiable or concludes that military action is necessary. Witkoff’s account of the Iranian nuclear negotiations provides a specific example. In March, he said Iranian negotiators had acknowledged possessing enriched uranium potentially sufficient for 11 nuclear bombs. That was his public characterisation of their position—not independent evidence of an Iranian decision to build those weapons.