For reasons that have never been explained, Donald Trump decided months ago that Steve Witkoff would serve as the administration’s top negotiator with Iran. If his name sounds familiar, that’s because Witkoff is also helping lead the administration’s negotiations with Russia and Ukraine despite the inconvenient fact that he is a New York real estate developer with no relevant experience in foreign policy or delicate international diplomacy.
Nevertheless, the White House’s top amateur diplomat has, in fact, met with Iranian officials, including interactions last year that long predated the president’s decision to launch an unnecessary war. According to Witkoff’s own public comments, in one of the discussions, he talked about developing a “verification” system that might allow Iran to produce low levels of uranium for a nuclear energy program.
That wasn’t an outrageous position to take. In fact, Witkoff’s position dovetailed with elements of the Obama-era nuclear agreement, which did roughly the same thing.
On Thursday, Trump spoke with Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren, who told the president as part of the on-air interview that Witkoff told her the United States offered Iranian officials a possible agreement in which they could enrich uranium for a domestic medical program, below levels needed for a nuclear weapon.
The president, who too often seems like a bystander in his own White House, apparently wasn’t aware of the offer — and immediately denounced it.
“Maybe it wasn’t a very serious offer because I wouldn’t have approved that,” the Republican replied. “I’m not giving them anything. I wouldn’t have approved that.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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