US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, spoke on Thursday night at the opening session of the 10th Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit in Florida and commented on the situation in Iran.
Witkoff revealed that at Trump’s direction, the US communicated with the Iranians on Wednesday to express concerns about the mass hangings that were rumored to be on the way. “And that's been shut down, I think, as everyone knows, the President has announced that. He's the only one in the world who has that indomitable strength that can bend people. I watch it happen. It's quite remarkable to watch it happen."
Asked whether he thinks there will be some kind of military action against Iran, Witkoff replied, “Well, I hope there's a diplomatic resolution. I really do. There are four issues: Nuclear enrichment, missiles, they have to cut back on their inventory, the actual material that they have, which is roughly 2,000 kilograms which is enriched anywhere between 3.67% to 60%, and the proxies, of course."
“And I think if Iran, which is stumbling in their economy, it's a pretty serious situation, there's no water there 16 hours a day, there's no electricity 12 hours a day, inflation is probably well north of 50%. That's a lot of problems. So I think if they want to come back to the League of Nations, we can solve those four problems diplomatically, then that would be a great resolution, and I think the alternative is a bad one."
To the question of what he would say to the people of Iran who clearly want that regime gone, he replied, “I'd say to them, they're incredibly courageous people, and we stand with you."
Witkoff also commented on the possibility that Trump’s recent comments could be a tactic to mislead people.“The President, he's a really good commander-in-chief…he understands all the different iterations. Part of it is he's got a great team. So at CENTCOM, at the Pentagon, they're war planning. They're giving him all the different alternatives. But his instincts are just spot on. I'm not in a position to reveal sort of how he thinks, but I think it's hard to understand how he thinks. He just always inevitably gets to the right place, and I think he'll get our country there this time too."