The Iranians were playing games, he was told, going back on a “deal” the US side thought it had secured.
“Tell them that’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Trump said, “but tell them to look out their window and watch.”
Instead, Pakistani mediators will shuttle back and forth with messages, in person now rather than relaying phone texts.
Witkoff and Kushner are hawks; Vance, on the other hand, never seemed happy about the attack on Iran.
He once said, in 2024, that “our interest…very much, is in not going to war with Iran”.
But Witkoff will face an Iranian team acknowledged as skilled negotiators, who have spent years steeped in nuclear diplomacy.
That depends on whether Witkoff, Kushner, and Vance can shape a deal that is not too obvious a humiliation for Trump. »