Ultimately, worded diplomatically, while the attempt at dialogue is objectively a step away from escalating conflict,
the effectiveness of these specific individuals (Witkoff & Kushner) is widely doubted by Iranian officials and some analysts. Previous talks led by Witkoff and Kushner did not settle agreements, with critics pointing to their background in real estate rather than traditional diplomacy, suggesting they were ill-prepared for nuclear negotiations, assuming nuclear negotiations are even on the table at this point.
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the
Middle East who President Donald Trump tasked with negotiating a deal with
Iran, does not sound very much like a diplomat lately.
“There’s almost no stopping them, they have an endless supply of [enriched uranium],” Witkoff
toldSean Hannity the day the war began. “They thought they could strong-arm us. ... It was very, very clear that it was — it was going to be impossible, probably by the second meeting.”
“They bragged about having 60% enriched fuel, enough for 11 bombs,” he
told reporters seven days into the conflict. “They told me and Jared, ‘We’re not going to give you diplomatically what you couldn’t take militarily.’ So you know, I think they’re gonna need a change of attitude.”
View attachment 34038
Witkoff and his co-negotiator, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, reportedly told the White House on the eve of the campaign that Iran was simply using talks to buy time — a conclusion that factored into Trump’s decision to greenlight the operation, according to at least
threeseparate reports.
Trump himself publicly claimed that the pair had helped persuade him to go to war. The gulf between the two sides is huge. The US opening position is zero uranium enrichment by Iran, ever. Iran says it has the right to do this as a sovereign nation.
Witkoff has admitted that his knowledge of the nuclear issue is “sketchy”.
A few months after leaving the White House at the end of Trump’s first term as his senior adviser, in 2020, Kushner got $2bn of Saudi money for his private equity fund. He’s had another $1.5bn from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and the fund now reportedly stands at $6.2bn. He gets 1.25 per cent a year to manage it – $157m in fees from foreign governments so far, according to the Senate Finance Committee, so there’s his impartiality or only an American-centric position in this.
The President’s son-in-law is getting tens of millions in guaranteed fees every year from foreign autocracies in the Gulf while shaping US policy toward them.
Vance has a very personal stake in the outcome of these talks. He is a former Marine who served in Iraq – and then launched his political career by speaking out against the folly of “forever wars”. More than any other senior figure in the administration, he is
associated with Trump’s former position of avoiding foreign entanglements.
If he can make peace with Iran, it could launch his own bid for the presidency in 2028.
Tehran has a 10-point plan, which includes US acceptance of Iran’s right to uranium enrichment, and continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is demanding war reparations, a commitment from the US never to attack again, the lifting of all sanctions, and the withdrawal of US combat forces from the region.
View attachment 34040The US has a 15-point plan and, according to leaks, it includes a permanent commitment by Iran never to make a nuclear weapon. That means dismantling Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow nuclear facilities; handing over all enriched uranium to the IAEA; and IAEA monitoring of all remaining nuclear infrastructure. The US plan also reportedly includes limits on ballistic missiles; an end to support for Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and militias in Iraq; and
recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
View attachment 34039Trumps three negotiators are as close in their goals as America and Iran currently are, so how can this peace process not be successful? The US is much stronger than Iran militarily, but you can win every battle and still lose the war, and really, who has won this war as far as negotiations for a peace treaty go at this point?
Both sides had arrived at the venue when the Iranian delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met Sharif, followed by US Vice President JD Vance, accompanied by White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Iran has previously said that any agreement on a permanent end to fighting must include the unfreezing of sanctioned Iranian assets as well as an end to Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon,
which Vance has said will not be up for discussion in Islamabad.
Senior Iranian and American delegations met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Saturday to begin negotiations towards a deal to end the Middle East war unleashed six weeks earlier by US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
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Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is also part of the delegation, told his German counterpart in a call on Saturday that "
Iran enters negotiations with complete distrust due to repeated breaches of commitments and betrayals by the United States", the Tasnim news agency reported.
Vance said before leaving the US that if the other side was "
willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand"(like it was open until Feb 28th?).
But "
if they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive", he added. So is this Round#1 or a continuation of the negotiations that America and Iran where in on February 28th?