March 22,2025
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff says the US president is trying to head off armed conflict with Iran by building trust with Tehran.
In an interview with online news anchor Tucker Carlson published on X March 21, Witkoff said Trump’s recent letter to the Islamic Republic had not been intended as a threat. Many Iranians, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, are complaining that all Trump does is threaten to attack Iran.
Witkoff, defending Trump’s outreach, told Carlson that Trump has the military upper hand and it would be more natural for the Iranians to push for a diplomatic solution. “Instead, it’s him [Trump] doing that,” he said of the letter.
“It roughly said: ‘I’m a president of peace. That’s what I want. There’s no reason for us to do this militarily. We should talk,’” Witkoff said.
He said the goal was to create a system that would verify that Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon. That was what President Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) did until Trump withdrew from it in 2015.
“We should create a verification program so that nobody worries about weaponization of your nuclear material,” Witkoff said, “because the alternative is not a very good alternative.” That “alternative” reference was just the kind f threat Trump has made numerous times when discussing Iran.
Witkoff said that US discussions with Iran continue through “back channels, through multiple countries and multiple conduits.”
Trump, he said, is “open to an opportunity to clean it all up with Iran, where they come back to the world and be a great nation once again… He wants to build trust with them.”
That remark telegraphed—as Trump has as well—that Trump is not advocating “regime change,” and is quite willing to make an agreement with the Islamic Republic that will keep the Islamic Republic in power. Ironically, it is Khamenehi who has refused to allow negotiations with Iran, suggesting he does not understand that Trump doesn’t care about regime change.
Witkoff said, “I think he [Trump] wants a deal with Iran with respect. He wants to build trust with them, if that’s possible.”
Earlier this month, Khamenehi said Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA renders diplomacy with him pointless. “The US president saying ‘we are ready to negotiate with Iran’ and calling for negotiations is a deception aimed at misleading global public opinion,” he said. But he didn’t suggest calling Trump’s bluff by agreeing to talks.
Witkoff was appointed by Trump to handle the Arab-Israeli conflict. But Trump has since said he should handle Iran and has even called on him to help on Ukraine.
Witkoff said he hoped “that I or someone in the Administration [will go to Tehran]. It’s a little more complicated because this is a nuclear issue and we need someone with expertise. It’s a little more complicated, but I think it would start with someone on the president’s team, which could be me or someone else in the Administration, but I would welcome the opportunity if I were involved.”
While the Islamic Republic says it is mulling over a reply to Trump’s letter, Witkoff said Iran had already “reached back out … through, you know, back channels, through multiple countries and multiple conduits.”
On March 17, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqai said Iran will respond to Trump’s letter after a review of the text has ben completed. He said Tehran does not plan to release the text, and categorized news reports about its contents as speculation. But he said the letter does not differ from what Trump has said publicly.
Witkoff began his career as a real estate lawyer, and became a billionaire real estate investor and developer, like Trump. In November 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported: “Peers in the real-estate world invariably describe Witkoff … as smart, personable and a talented negotiator with a common touch.”
After graduating from law school in 1983, Witkoff worked for the New York City real estate law firm Dreyer & Traub, where one of his clients was Donald Trump. They became friends at a New York City deli, after they had worked together on a business deal.
