“The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” President Donald Trump declared in 2018 as he withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He has always claimed that President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement was terrible. And he has always been right.
But if Trump lets Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, continue to negotiate with Iran along the current lines, he will end up with an agreement even weaker than the JCPOA. Witkoff is driving Trump on the road to Obamaland.
To understand why and how, we have to go back to the beginning of this journey.
It begins with the visit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on February 4. As the first foreign leader to meet President Trump after his inauguration, Netanyahu arrived with a bold proposal. Over the course of 2024, Israel’s military had decimated Hezbollah, crushed Hamas, and destroyed Iran’s air defenses and missile fuel facilities. Iran’s nuclear weapons program stood naked and exposed.