Trump administration insiders are reportedly concerned that the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is not capable of dealing with Iran, Hamas or Russia, the insiders told the New York Post on Wednesday.
“Nice guy, but a bumbling f***ing idiot,” a member of Trump’s first administration said of Witkoff. “He should not be doing this alone.”
Some of the anxieties surrounding Witkoff’s capabilities reportedly came from his admission during a Fox News interview that he thought the US had successfully brokered a one month extension on the last hostage deal.
“I thought we had an acceptable deal,” he said in the March interview. “I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s just me getting duped. I thought we were there, and evidently we weren’t.”
Shiri Fein-Grossman, the former Head of Regional Affairs at the Israel National Security Council, told the NYP, “His assumption that actors like Hamas or Iran are primarily motivated by a desire to live — and can therefore be reasoned with through direct engagement — reflects a dangerous misunderstanding of their long-term ideological goals.
“We have to understand our enemies through their lens, not ours. Hamas and Iran are autocratic regimes driven by deep-rooted ideologies, not short-term interests.”
How can the United States tame Tehran’s nuclear threat?
Others, like Israeli security expert and Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies fellow Danny Citrinowicz, told the NYP that they feared Witkoff’s plate was simply too full.
“How does Witkoff divide his time with two very demanding negotiations?” asked Citrinowicz. “I think he’s a good guy, but the Iran issue is so complex that I’m hoping he is bringing more people to the team.
“Because as of now the Iranians might have the upper hand, given their vast knowledge in negotiations.”
Iran and the US have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton was more blunt, posting on X Sunday that “Witkoff’s discussions with Iran are a waste of oxygen.”
“The Iranians are trying to buy time and relief from economic sanctions so they can rebuild their military. We cannot just ‘tap along’ with the Iranians,” he concluded.
