Developer-turned-diplomat
In November 2024, while appointing Steven C. Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East [West Asia], U.S. President Donald Trump said that 'Steve will be an unrelenting voice for peace.' Since then, Mr. Witkoff, 68, in the words of an American analyst, has morphed from Trump's 'Middle East Envoy' into the 'Envoy of Everything'.
In less than six months, he managed to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas (which has since lapsed), another ceasefire with the Houthis, got Russia to release a jailed American school teacher in a prisoner swap, persuaded Hamas to release an Israeli-American hostage, had Russia and Ukraine agree to resume truce talks, and got Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme, notwithstanding the fact that it was Mr. Trump who had scrapped a perfectly functional nuclear deal. That's an impressive run of achievements for any diplomat, let alone somebody with no formal diplomatic training and no background in international relations.
What explains his success? Admittedly, he works for a hands-on President who likes to do all diplomacy by himself. But that still doesn't account for his effectiveness, which might be rooted in how he bagged this gig in the first place.
At one level, it helps to be the President's long-time golf partner. It helps even more if you are a businessman from the same industry as the President (real estate), and both subscribe to its distinctive set of values — pragmatism, realism, and a belief that cracking deals and making money trumps all else, including ideology and abstract questions of right and wrong.
At another, Mr. Witkoff has trod the well-worn path of billionaire tycoons who begin by funnelling millions of dollars into a Presidential campaign, leverage their contributions to gain the candidate's confidence and influence within the party, and after their chosen horse wins the race, manoeuvre themselves into a position within or outside the administration from where they orchestrate a sweet convergence of interests between state policy and private business. They may do so with or without a formal role in the administration. Elon Musk is a prime example, and so is Witkoff.
However, unlike Musk and other megadonors of Mr. Trump, Mr. Witkoff is one of the few men outside the Trump clan who enjoys his absolute trust. It is this dynamic — he can pick up the phone and call the President any time — that sets Mr. Witkoff apart from other notional contenders for the role of one of the U.S.'s top diplomats, be they distinguished career diplomats or politicians with years of experience with the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Witkoff's interlocutors — Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas — value the fact that they are negotiating with someone who actually speaks for the U.S. President and not another functionary from the State Department.
Such a high level of trust is not bought with financial contributions alone. It is earned over time. Mr. Witkoff's relationship with Mr. Trump goes back to the 1980s, when he was working for a law firm that handled Mr. Trump's real estate transactions. The story goes that Mr. Trump walked into a deli one day without his wallet, and Mr. Witkoff bought him a sandwich, launching a friendship that has served both of them rather well. Mr. Witkoff is on record saying that when he first met Mr. Trump, he wanted 'to be like him.' He acted on that impulse, transitioning from legal work to the real estate business, buying and selling property in some of the hottest markets, including Manhattan.
Mr. Witkoff has stood by Mr. Trump at critical times when many of his avowed supporters deserted him, such as after the January 2021 riot at the Capitol. He has testified on Trump's behalf in a civil fraud trial. Within the Republican Party, he has been Mr. Trump's prime trouble-shooter. Acting as Mr. Trump's emissary, he flew out to meet fellow Republicans who were not exactly fans of Mr. Trump. Mr. Witkoff negotiated with them — the likes of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Nikki Haley, one-time rival in the presidential race Ron DeSantis — and eventually lined them up in Mr. Trump's corner.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Witkoff believe that the negotiation skills and mindset that helped them crack complicated property deals are not only transferable to conflict resolution but are superior to the staid toolkit of traditional diplomacy. That partly explains Mr. Witkoff jetting off for one-on-one meetings — with aides or even translators — with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he has met at least four times. It also explains the U.S.'s departure from protocol in talking directly with Hamas — something it has never done before. Ever the pragmatic deal-maker, finding Benjamin Netanyahu to be an obstacle, Mr. Witkoff simply bypassed him, which is how he got the American-Israeli prisoner freed when others had tried and failed.
Mr. Witkoff's desire to be the West Asia Envoy also needs to be seen in the context of his links to sovereign wealth funds from Gulf countries, including the Qatar Investment Authority, which bailed him out of a real estate deal gone wrong. The penchant for approaching geopolitical problems through the real estate lens found grotesque expression in Mr. Trump's idea, backed by Mr. Witkoff, that Gaza should be depopulated and redeveloped as a Mediterranean Riviera. It cannot be denied, however, that a conventional diplomat would have never approved the public airing of such an idea. As someone who both understands and shares Mr. Trump's vision, Mr. Witkoff's USP is his ability to market that vision to foreign interlocutors, but sans the Trumpian brashness, which could be fatally jarring in diplomatic realms populated by large yet fragile egos.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
27 minutes ago
- Time of India
China Sides With Iran, Greenlights Hormuz BLOCKADE? Beijing's First Response As U.S. Seeks Help
/ Jun 23, 2025, 06:00PM IST United States' airstrike on the Iranian nuclear sites has triggered a massive global oil crisis scare. Tehran's parliament has decided to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil chokepoint. The strait accounts for 1/5th of the movement of oil containers across the world. According to reports, United States had urged China not to led the Ayatollah Khamenei-led regime to shut the strait. Will China heed to Trump's request after a bitter trade tariff war between the two superpowers?
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
Did the US really wipe out Iran's nuclear sites? Reports say Trump may have been tricked by Tehran
Despite President Trump's declaration of a complete victory, the US airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have yielded mixed results. While some sites sustained damage, particularly at Fordow, doubts remain about the extent of destruction to underground facilities. Concerns linger regarding Iran's potential relocation of enriched uranium, potentially hindering but not halting their nuclear ambitions. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Did the US really wipe out Iran's nuclear sites? Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads What do satellite images reveal about the damage? What do experts think about the attack? Has Iran secretly moved its highly enriched Uranium? Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads How does this impact Iran's nuclear ambitions? FAQs US President Donald Trump announced with confidence that US airstrikes had destroyed Iran's main nuclear sites and called it a complete victory. However, expert opinions and satellite images present a different Saturday night, Donald Trump dispatched seven B-2 stealth bombers from the United States to destroy Tehran's nuclear program by dropping massive bunker-busting bombs on three enrichment facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and underground facilities may have survived, and enriched uranium may have been moved without anyone knowing. The attack may have slowed down Iran's nuclear plans, but it did not stop them, as per reports by CNN and of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday that a US submarine used Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike an Isfahan location where a US official estimates that approximately 60% of Iran's stockpile of already-enriched nuclear material is kept Isfahan facility was not hit by massive "bunker-buster" bombs dropped by B-2 bombers, in contrast to the other two Iranian facilities targeted in the operation, as per a report by the US used 12 bunker busters to destroy Iran's facility at Fordow, another underground location that contained centrifuges needed to enrich uranium, the facility's evident survival has prompted doubts about whether Trump's declared objective was even to commercial satellite imagery, the U.S. attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed, the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it contained, but experts said on Sunday that there was no proof of it. However, it is unknown how much damage has been done because the facility has layers of Technologies' satellite imagery from Thursday and Friday revealed "unusual activity" at Fordow, including a lengthy line of cars waiting outside one of the facility's Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, has closely examined commercial satellite images of the strike sites and said the damage to the facility seems limited to aboveground structures.'They just punched through with these MOPs,' said David Albright, the head of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former U.N. nuclear inspector, in reference to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the United States claimed it Eveleth, a satellite images specialist and associate researcher with the CNA Corporation, pointed out that it was impossible to confirm the destruction below ground. The hall that houses hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he stated to Iran, prior to US attacks on its nuclear bases, the majority of its highly enriched uranium was smuggled to a hidden location. Iran claimed that it had moved its 400 kg stockpile, much of which was kept at Isfahan, and satellite photos showed convoys departing all three locations in recent days, as per a report by think that the majority of Fordow's 400 kg of 60%-enriched uranium was transferred prior to Operation Midnight Hammer, as per a report by The of 16 trucks snaking down a road near the entrance of the Fordow plant, obscured by rubble and dirt, was released by US defense contractor Maxar Technologies on June defense company TS2 Space reports that trucks, bulldozers, and security convoys swarm Fordow, where analysts observed a "frantic effort" to move shielding materials or intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon stated that transferring Iran's uranium would be "like having fuel without a car" and that they are unable to do much with it unless they develop a small-scale project that we are unaware of, as per The also warned that Iran might be concealing this and other nuclear components in places that Israel, the United States, and the U.N. nuclear inspectors are unaware would take years and rely on Tehran's capacity to restore essential equipment before Iran could produce a nuclear weapon, even though it might have the entirely; experts believe some deep underground facilities and uranium stockpiles were has the potential to rebuild, as key equipment and uranium may have been secretly relocated.
News18
30 minutes ago
- News18
Were Foreign Workers Barred From Israeli Bomb Shelters? Viral Videos Stir Online Debate
Last Updated: One of the most widely circulated videos appears to show an Israeli man allegedly preventing Thai and other foreign workers from entering an underground shelter Several purported videos have surfaced on social media claiming that foreign workers in Israel were denied access to bomb shelters amid the ongoing war between Israel and Iran. The conflict, now in its 11th consecutive day, shows no signs of de-escalation, with both sides continuing to launch missiles and drones at each other. In Israel, where most homes are equipped with bunkers due to long-standing civil defence laws, citizens have been regularly taking shelter as sirens sound across cities. Since the 1950s, Israeli law has required all new buildings to include bomb shelters as part of civil defence preparedness. Amid rising tensions, the newly circulated videos allege that some foreign workers are being barred from using these shelters. News18 has not independently verified the videos but has reviewed clips that have been widely shared across platforms. One of the most widely circulated videos appears to show an Israeli man allegedly preventing Thai and other foreign workers from entering an underground shelter. In the footage, the workers stand outside a closed shelter door. One of them asks, 'Why are you preventing us?" The man replies, 'You are Thai, and the shelter is for Jews only." Footage shows israelis preventing Thai & foreign workers from using public bunkers — don't work for israelis, don't trade with them: learn — Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) June 16, 2025 Another video, shared by a Chinese worker in Israel, claims that only Israelis are allowed to enter the shelters. The man adds, 'My conscience does not allow me to sympathise with the Jews. I really can't understand their behaviour." In a separate video, a Ukrainian woman in Tel Aviv claims she was denied entry to a shelter because she is not Jewish. 'They told us, 'We're not obligated to let you in; there's not enough space.' So much for Israeli solidarity," she says in the clip. A Ukrainian woman in Tel Aviv denied entry to bunker as she's not Jewish'They told us, 'We're not obligated to let you in; there's not enough space.' So much for Israeli solidarity," she says. — Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 18, 2025 Another widely shared video shows a man from Daliyat al-Karmel, near Haifa, alleging that he was turned away after people heard him speaking Arabic. 'They didn't let me into the shelter because I'm an Arab," he says. 'They didn't let me into shelters because I'm an Arab"– Israeli Druze from Dalit al-Karmel, near Haifa, who was forced to stay outside because they heard him speak arabic — Harrison H. Smith ✞ (@HarrisonHSmith) June 19, 2025 Counterclaims Emerge Alongside these videos, some social media users have challenged the allegations. One user on wrote: 'Bassem Youssef and Hamas Quds News mistranslate to claim Jews prevent Thai workers from entering the shelter, when they were really being invited in. The original video (without the Arabic text added) and account shows the inside of the shelter with the workers." 9. Bassem Youssef and Hamas Quds News mistranslate to claim Jews prevent Thai workers from entering the shelter, when they were really being invited inThe original video (without the Arabic text added) and account shows the inside of the shelter with the workers. — Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) June 17, 2025 The user also shared screenshots which they claim show the Israeli man welcoming foreign workers into the shelter. However, this counterclaim has not been independently verified. 'The antisemitic blood libels are coming fast and furious. Arabic media and social media are claiming there is a video where an Israeli Jew prevents Thai workers from a bomb shelter because it is for 'Jews only." In fact, he was begging them to come IN to shelter," another user responded. As of now, the Israeli government has not issued an official response regarding the specific incidents shown in the videos. Location : Israel First Published: June 23, 2025, 18:06 IST News viral Were Foreign Workers Barred From Israeli Bomb Shelters? Viral Videos Stir Online Debate
