Trump Special Envoy to Everywhere Steve Witkoff is making Middle East… deals?

Trump’s merger of international diplomacy and Mafia business models keeps going forward.

Steve Witkoff may not know a whole lot about international affairs or diplomacy. But at least he himself may get some benefits from the Trump 2.0 grift:

President Trump received plenty of attention this month when he happily accepted a $400m Boeing 747 from the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar.

“Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our country,” Trump posted on social media.

But Trump and his golf buddy turned special negotiator Steve Witkoff landed a much bigger gift this month, likely to enrich them far more: a $2bn investment in their new cryptocurrency venture from the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The investment by a firm controlled by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund will go to World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm whose biggest beneficiaries are the Trump and Witkoff families.

Thanks to Abu Dhabi’s purchase of their “stablecoin”, the Trumps and Witkoffs will collect hefty fees and could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments. (1)

Now Trump and his special envoy have reached what might be called a non-deal deal in Iran’s nuclear program. Amos Harel reports:

What's now emerging is that Trump, via his envoy Steve Witkoff … isn't seeking a comprehensive deal with Iran but a kind of agreement on basic principles or even only an agenda for future talks. An arrangement like that would prevent a military clash now and lay the way for a permanent agreement down the line. (2).

Isn’t this a polite way of saying that Trump failed to get a deal and has given up for the moment on even trying? Harel continues:

Israel, especially Netanyahu, can expect more disappointments from the agreement that's in the works, though this isn't a surprising development. The United States won't demand clarifications on Iran's missile program, nor will it impose bans on Iran's support for agents of chaos in the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories and the Houthis in Yemen. After the latest round of talks in Rome, another meeting is likely, maybe in the Middle East.

Yeah, sounds like a failed attempt to me!

So the understandings that Trump agrees to won't be all that far from what Barack Obama achieved in the 2015 nuclear agreement, or from the informal understandings between the Iranians and Joe Biden in recent years. As the Americans say, Trump is kicking the can down the road.

Another way of describing giving up while also declaring victory.

But, despite the diplomatic fog around the whole thing, it does appear that Trump 2.0 really does not want Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. At least for right now. From whatever combination of reasons, the Trump 2.0 regime realizes that it would not be good for them to give Netanyahu the US war against Iran that he’s been demanding for more than two decades.

Netanyahu’s judgment on the issue isn’t the best. Vox in 2015 took a look back:

Indeed, Netanyahu was a rather aggressive Iraq hawk back in the early 2000s. “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking, is working, is advancing towards to the development of nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said in 2002 testimony to Congress. “Once Saddam has nuclear weapons, the terror network will have nuclear weapons,”

Not only did Netanyahu get the nuclear issue wrong — Saddam was not building a nuclear program after all — but he incorrectly predicted that the war would inspire an Iranian democratic uprising that would topple the theocratic regime.

“If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region,” Netanyahu claimed. “And I think that people sitting right next door in Iran, young people, and many others, will say the time of such regimes, of such despots is gone.” [my emphasis] (3)

On the other hand, Iran still doesn’t have a formal binding agreement in place on the nuclear program. A failure is a failure.

But Trump and Wikoff are able to make money on the back of their diplomacy. So there’s that.

Netanyahu was not entirely unpleased by developments in the Middle East in the Bush II and Obama years. As Joe Gill wrote last year:

As it turned out, following the disastrous invasion of Iraq and later Lebanon, there were “implosions” across the whole region in 2011. These were not without risks for Israel, but the counter-revolutions that ended the uprisings ensured that no destabilising force would threaten Netanyahu’s vision of a reconfigured Middle East.

In fact, the post-2011 order was more pro-Israel than the one that preceded it. This strategy culminated in the 2020 normalisation accords with four Arab states, implemented without any concessions on Palestinian demands for self-determination. (4)

But: “Then, things fell apart.“

And the falling apart is still in process.

“The international community [i.e., the US] must act now to stop Iran,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says, adding that the level of uranium enrichment Iran had reached “exists only in countries actively pursuing nuclear weapons and has no civilian justification whatsoever.” (5)

And when it comes to alleged US pressure to get Israel to back off its current war on Gaza civilians: (6)

The southern England family singing group is famous for doing inspired political parody songs to the tune of well-known hits. This is a different variation on that, not a parody but a serious, moving protest song, “Gaza.”

Notes:

(1) McManus, Doyle (2025): Trump and special envoy Witkoff stand to reap rewards from official business. Guardian 05/30/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/trump-steve-witkoff-envoy> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

(2) Trump Blocks the Building of an Iranian Nuclear Bomb but Saves the Binding Accords for Later. Haaretz 05/30/2025. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-30/ty-article/.premium/trump-blocks-the-building-of-an-iranian-bomb-but-saves-the-binding-accords-for-later/00000197-205c-d0e9-abd7-2dfca0930000> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

(3) Beauchamp, Zack (2015): Benjamin Netanyahu’s not-so-prescient 2002 message to Congress about Iraq. Vox 02/26/2015. <https://www.vox.com/2015/2/26/8114221/netanyahu-iraq-2002> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

Gill, Joe (2024): Netanyahu’s dream was a US war with Iran. It is now Israel's nightmare. Middle East Eye 10/05/2024. <https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/netanyahus-dream-was-us-war-iran-it-now-nightmare> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

(5) Reuters (2025): After alarming IAEA report, Netanyahu urges world to ‘act now to stop Iran’. Times of Israel 05/31/2025. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/after-alarming-iaea-report-netanyahu-urges-world-to-act-now-to-stop-iran/ (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

(6) Aladam, Mera (2025): Israel fires at Palestinian aid seekers as new north Gaza expulsion orders issued. Middle East Eye 05/30/2025. <https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-shells-palestinians-seeking-aid-it-issues-new-expulsion-orders-north-gaza> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).

(7) "Gaza" - adaptation by the Marsh Family of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls, on the occupation of Gaza. Marsh Family YouTube channel 01/06/2025. <https://youtu.be/7OGcRQtorAM?si=TTRjd8kxUn6vRaeq> (Accessed: 2025-01-06).