Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are billionaire real estate developers, lifelong associates of Donald Trump, and men with no formal training in diplomacy, international law, or nuclear policy. They are also both staunchly pro-Israel. These are the men Trump selected as his special envoys to negotiate with Iran – one of the most complex and consequential diplomatic assignments in the world.
In early 2026, the two held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Geneva, mediated by Oman. Their conclusion – that Iran was employing 'games, tricks and stall tactics' and had stockpiled enough enriched uranium for up to eleven nuclear bombs – was delivered to a president already predisposed to military action. Trump acted on it. Coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran followed soon after.
The world is now living with the consequences.
Russia has reportedly begun providing intelligence support to Iran. A conflict already consuming Gaza and Ukraine is now drawing in regional powers across the Middle East and beyond. What began as a diplomatic process, however flawed, has escalated into a widening war.
The question history will ask is simple and devastating: who thought it wise to entrust negotiations of this magnitude to men whose entire careers had been spent closing property deals?
Expertise matters. Impartiality matters. The absence of both, at this level, does not produce tough negotiating; it produces catastrophe.
When the stakes are a potential widespread world war, sending in loyalists instead of diplomats is a dangerous and unforgivable failure of judgement, and it is ordinary people, in multiple countries, who are already paying the price.
– Cedar Rivers
In early 2026, the two held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Geneva, mediated by Oman. Their conclusion – that Iran was employing 'games, tricks and stall tactics' and had stockpiled enough enriched uranium for up to eleven nuclear bombs – was delivered to a president already predisposed to military action. Trump acted on it. Coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran followed soon after.
The world is now living with the consequences.
Russia has reportedly begun providing intelligence support to Iran. A conflict already consuming Gaza and Ukraine is now drawing in regional powers across the Middle East and beyond. What began as a diplomatic process, however flawed, has escalated into a widening war.
The question history will ask is simple and devastating: who thought it wise to entrust negotiations of this magnitude to men whose entire careers had been spent closing property deals?
Expertise matters. Impartiality matters. The absence of both, at this level, does not produce tough negotiating; it produces catastrophe.
When the stakes are a potential widespread world war, sending in loyalists instead of diplomats is a dangerous and unforgivable failure of judgement, and it is ordinary people, in multiple countries, who are already paying the price.
– Cedar Rivers
Steve Witkoff, Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner
