Trump has told Israel that he refuses to attack Iran or take out their nuclear program. Senior sources in the Trump administration say that they are planning to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran, but an attack is off the table for now. This comes as reports surface that Trump…
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) January 23, 2025
Big news.
If these reports turn out to be true, Steve Witkoff is being tapped to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran, which is a surprising twist given that it was Trump who tore up Obama’s Iran deal.
“President Trump is expected to give his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff responsibility over Iran diplomacy, according to two U.S. officials and two other sources with knowledge of the issue.
Why it matters: Trump’s intention to give the Iran file to Witkoff, the close confidant he tasked with pushing for a historic peace deal in the Middle East, signals that the president wants to try and get a new nuclear deal with Iran before considering other options, like military strikes.
Witkoff already helped secure a diplomatic win for Trump when he was involved in the final push for the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. Israeli and Qatari officials said Witkoff’s involvement was critical for concluding the deal.
Driving the news: The sources said Trump hadn’t made an official decision yet, but that’s where he’s headed. …”
Whether it is Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine or Iran, Trump seems to want these festering conflicts to just go away. Foreign affairs are a distraction from Trump’s domestic agenda.
FT:
“Donald Trump is to put his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in charge of addressing Washington’s concerns over Iran, suggesting the US president is willing to test diplomacy before ramping up pressure on Tehran, people familiar with the matter said.
Witkoff, a real estate investor who played a pivotal role in securing the Gaza ceasefire, is expected to spearhead efforts on Iran’s nuclear programme as part of a broader Trump remit to “stop the wars” in the region, the people said. …”
What changed?
Trump nearly plunged us into a war with Iran in his first term. Activists were certain that Trump is controlled by Zionists who are plotting a “war with Iran.” Instead, he extinguished the wars in Lebanon and Gaza and seems to want to settle accounts with Iran and Russia.
Back then, Trump wasn’t surrounded by Elon Musk and all the other tech broligarchs. Sheldon Adelson was his biggest donor. Bernie Marcus who is now dead was another one of his biggest donors. What these guys want is to create the Oz-like AI superintelligence.
Another possibility.
Trump’s opposition to JCPOA was, like mine, moderate opposition. In that he wasn’t opposed to “a” deal, he was opposed to “that particular” deal. That a better one was possible, but JCPOA was dangerous.
In contrast to the Z-people, who are fanatical opponents and don’t and never want any kind of deal.
I think Trump was fanatically against the Iran nuclear deal because it was a big Obama achievement. Today, he can own Joe Biden by negotiating a new deal with Iran to own Joe Biden. This is all about making his predecessor look bad and himself look good. At least that is my theory.
Its not so hard to consider that maybe he means what he says and doesn’t want a war with Iran.
He already said the Palestine thing isn’t our deal, its Israels problem. A major dustup or attack on Iran would seriously compromise his domestic support and derail all his momemtum. We would gain nothing for it. Its anathema to his whole MO.
In their current state Iran is seriously weakened and has made itself a liability to its allies because of its now evident instability from the way everything from Palestine to Lebanon ended up and then us taking out Syria in a weekend adventure with Turkey. They are ripe for a deal.
Anyway, you can’t reduce oil prices (reduce inflation) if the Iranians are blowing up tankers in the Bab El Mandeb Strait, or the Strait of Hormuz, which is exactly what will happen if he attacks them.
The simplest explanation of his position is exactly what he’s said he wants. Its an unparsimonious explanation to include some convoluted 3D chess gambit. Making biden look stupid is just a cherry on top. The stakes of this kind of rapprochement with Iran are too high for him to play for giggles.
I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. This week has been an eye opener even for me. Dude has brass balls and he’s doing everything he can, as fast as he can.
Theres nothing anybody can do right now to change his direction anyway cause he has the bit in his teeth and is running with it, so we may as well get comfy and see where this wild hay ride goes.
Absolutely. Iran will be tough though. The Zionists will do absolutely anything to get America into a war with Iran. For example, I am deeply suspicious of the “..Iranian intelligence officer, wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former United States Government officials as revenge for the killing of IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani” (link below – & note it’s the feds’ Miami office).
IMO this reeks of a false flag setup. Iran would be nuts to carry out an attack on US soil, especially one aimed at Trump himself – it would guarantee Iran’s destruction. This “Iranian” (if he even exists) has MOSSAD insurance policy written all over him. Hopefully Trumps’ National Security team are wise to such possibilities.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorinfo/majid-dastjani-farahani
I assumed with Iran that he would go back to his maximum pressure campaign. I didn’t expect him to even try to negotiate a new nuclear deal. It would be great though if that happens and the whole issue goes away
“Trump has told Israel that he refuses to attack Iran or take out their nuclear program. Senior sources in the Trump administration say that they are planning to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran, but an attack is off the table for now. ”
if true, this is good news indeed; it will mean Iran will have time to get their Bomb (thus blunting Israel’s warring expansionistic tendencies)
We aren’t out of the foreign policy woods yet, not by a long shot. Right now would be a great time to write letters to the president, the vice president, your congressman and both of your senators and let them know you oppose war.
Saagar Enjeti of Breaking Points had a great segment recently about the America First vs. Necoconservative battle of foreign policy ideas within the Trump administration.
The Neocons (Nikki Haley, Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, The Jewish Insider, and most of all Jared Kushner) hate Witkoff and they want a war with Iran. They are doing everything they can to blackball America First patriots such as Dan Caldwell, Elbridge Colby, and Mike Mino.
Enjeti is convinced that the issue is balanced on a knife’s edge and could go either way. I think he is right.
I think there is a lot of evidence that Jared Kushner has immense influence on Donald Trump – more than all the donors combined. Kushner is the husband of Trump’s favorite child, and he is the one family member that Trump talks about with genuine respect.
It was troubling to recently hear Trump talk about how valuable Gaza’s beachfront property would be, while also floating the idea of relocating the people of Gaza to Indonesia. This echos Kushner’s infamous comments about the money to be made redeveloping Gaza after the people are removed.
It goes without saying that US involvement in a full scale ethnic cleansing of Gaza would carry with it the risk of full scale war with Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
Now is no time for complacency.
I will pop the video into this post
Sheldon Adelson, mobster.
Sheldon Adelson, monster.
Witkoff is going to try and buy off the Iranians so the jews can build their Gaza 2035 project. Getting the Iranians to agree to a mass deportation of the Gazan people and a rebuilding of Gaza as a jew hotel casino resort and free trade zone.
Here is Trump on Gaza— “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”
The president, a former property developer, said that the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long-term.”
…it is not hard to see the threat of nuclear destruction is going to be used as persuasion for Witkoff and the Trumpeter in their talks with the Iranians.