(JNS) U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, in an in-depth interview with Tucker Carlson on Friday, said addressing the Iranian nuclear threat and solving the Gaza conflict are the starting points to bringing stability to the region and expanding the Abraham Accords.
“How do we deal with Iran? That’s the biggie,” Witkoff said on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” a streaming podcast hosted by the conservative political commentator.
The first issue in tackling the Iranian threat is to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, Witkoff said. Otherwise, the Islamic Republic will turn into the North Korea of the Middle East.
Second is to deal with Iran’s “proxy armies,” Witkoff said, noting that Israel has already shown that those proxies, specifically Hamas and Hezbollah, don’t constitute the existential threat that had been previously thought.
Witkoff credited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “decapitating” Hezbollah and Hamas. “We would not be as effective in what we’re doing … if Bibi did not get [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah out of the picture in Lebanon. … If he did not do what he did with Hamas. He’s decapitated Hamas. Hamas is nowhere close to the terrorist organization that they were beforehand,” he said.
“That Islamist Crescent that everybody thought was going to be effective—it’s been largely eliminated. So he’s done an exceptional job with that,” Witkoff said.
He acknowledged that that Houthis in Yemen, who continue to disrupt maritime traffic and fire missiles into Israel, remain a problem, but only in the short term.
A diplomatic solution is “definitely” possible regarding Iran, he said, praising U.S. President Donald Trump’s outreach to the Islamic Republic earlier this month.
On March 7, Trump revealed to the Fox Business Network said he had sent a letter to Tehran the previous day. “I said I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,” Trump said. “Because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing—for them.”
On March 21, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said American threats “will get them nowhere.”
However, on March 20, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran would consider the “opportunities” in the letter.
‘Military action to stop a war’
“I think the president has acknowledged that he’s open to an opportunity to clean it all up with Iran,” Witkoff said. “I think he wants to deal with Iran with respect. He wants to build trust with them if it’s possible.
“The president is a president who doesn’t want to go to war. And he’ll use military action to stop a war. That’s when he actually wants to use military action in this particular case. Hopefully it won’t be necessary,” said Witkoff.
Gaza is another piece of the puzzle for calming the situation in the Middle East. “We’re going to need a very good plan on Gaza. It’s going to begin with that,” he said.
Out of the question was a solution that leave Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That is “unacceptable,” he said. “We just can’t have an October 7 ever again. October 7 was what 9/11 was in the United States.
“If Israel thinks they’re going to have a problem in Gaza because Hamas is going to be there long-term, this is never going to end,” he said.
Negotiating with Hamas was possible. “They’re not ideologically intractable,” he said. While Hamas’s leadership will send “young kids” in suicide vests to die, they don’t want to die themselves. Once you understand that they want to live, then you can to talk to them “in a more effective way,” he said.
Current talks may bring an end to the current round of Israeli airstrikes to reach a solution through dialogue, Witkoff said.
While he said that Israel’s resumption of bombing was “unfortunate,” it was necessary as Hamas had stopped responding to diplomatic proposals.
At the Arab Summit convened in Cairo on March 4, the U.S. presented a bridge proposal to a peace deal. The reaction by Hamas was “completely inappropriate,” he said. “I warned everybody that this was going to result in some sort of military action.”
Plan to relocate Gazans
Witkoff defended Trump’s plan to relocate Gazans to other countries. “I think it’s really important that when you’re making these decisions, that you level-set the facts,” he said, pointing out that the conditions in the Strip are too dangerous to live in.
“How do we put people back in a battle zone where there are munitions all over the field? Or where there are these latent conditions so that a kid can fall into a hole and go 40, 50, 60 feet down, and you’d never know that he was there,” he said.
“Who would do such a thing? If we had buildings and those conditions in New York, there would be yellow tape all around it and no one would be allowed in,” Witkoff said, estimating it would take 15 to 20 years to rebuild Gaza.
He shared the president’s view that past policy prescriptions for Gaza hadn’t worked, perpetuating a cycle of war, rebuilding and more war. It didn’t make “any sense,” Witkoff said. “The president began to say, ‘Maybe we need to think about it in a different way.’”
The president’s plan has borne fruit, leading to “lively discussion” about how to fix the Gaza issue, with the Egyptians and the Saudis putting together their plans. Witkoff anticipated the plan for Gaza will be much clearer in the next six-to-12 months.
Once stability in Gaza is achieved, the Abraham Accords could move forward. Trump wants more countries joining the Accords, first signed between Israel and several Arab states in 2020. The administration is in expected to announce several new participants in the peace effort, Witkoff said, though he didn’t name the countries. He listed Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia as possibilities further down the road.
Witkoff expressed support for the Qataris, who have acted as mediators in the Israel-Hamas negotiations.
“In the case of the Qataris, they’re criticized for not being well-motivated. It’s preposterous. They are well-motivated. They’re good, decent people,” Witkoff said. “Sheikh Mohammed [bin Abdulrahman Al Thani], the prime minister of Qatar, is a good man. … He’s a special guy.”
Qatar wants to be recognized as a “peacemaker,” it wants stability, and it wants a peace deal with the U.S., he said, describing the Gulf state’s motives.
The peace deal Qatar seeks isn’t just about security, but also about finance. “What it’s really about is the United States providing a security wrapper so that they [countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates] are all financeable. … You can’t borrow money in those countries,” he said.
“J.P. Morgan, if they are the hypothetical bank, has to underwrite war risk. They have to underwrite: Will the Houthis fire a hypersonic missile and destroy that A.I. data center that you just bought for $200 billion? That’s a real problem,” Witkoff said.
That’s why Qatar seeks stability, he said. “And they don’t get enough credit for that motivation.”
Witkoff acknowledged that he had received criticism for his position regarding the Qataris. “I was attacked as being a pro-Qatari sympathizer,” he noted.
Netanyahu, Rubio discuss Gaza war, ‘unwavering’ US support for Israel—PMO
(JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday.
The call was focused on “regional developments, including releasing the hostages and the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” according to a brief readout published by Netanyahu’s office on Sunday evening.
Washington’s top diplomat was said to have expressed to Netanyahu the Trump administration’s “unwavering support for Israel and its policy.”
On March 15, Rubio slammed as “nuts” the terms being demanded by Hamas in hostage-ceasefire negotiations with Israel, while insisting the Trump administration remains committed to freeing the remaining 59 captives still held by the Palestinian terrorist organization in Gaza.
“We care about all the hostages. We want all the hostages released … But we’re also talking about bodies. And these trades that are being made, they’re ridiculous trades—400 people for three. These are nuts,” Rubio said at a press conference following the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting.
“The whole world should continue to say that what Hamas has done is outrageous, it’s ridiculous, it’s sick, it’s disgusting … We’re just dealing with some savages. That’s it. These are bad people, terrible people, and we need to treat them as such,” added Rubio.
U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff sought to extend the Gaza ceasefire through the Passover and Ramadan periods, during which time Hamas would release 11 living hostages and half of the bodies it still holds. Jerusalem endorsed Witkoff’s proposed outline; Hamas did not.
Early on March 18, the IDF launched fresh “extensive” strikes against Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. The renewed Israeli military campaign has been officially named “Operation Strength and Sword.”
Washington “fully supports” Israel’s decision to resume its war against Hamas, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.