Steve Witkoff, one of President Donald Trump’s top envoys, is expected to have a busy week meeting with Iranian officials to discuss a possible nuclear deal, in addition to conversations with Russian and Ukrainian officials about trying to end the largest ground war in Europe since World War II.
Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to meet on Friday in Istanbul, Turkey, according to Axios, though the meeting could still fall through. This potential conversation could provide both countries with an off-ramp to avoid a larger conflict amid the tension between them.
Trump was drawn to negotiating with Iran during an Oval Office appearance on Monday, but declined to go into any particular detail.
“We’re talking about that [a new nuclear deal],” he said. “We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones, biggest and the best, and we have talks going on with Iran. We’ll see how it all works out.”
The president has warned Iran of a massive U.S. military operation if it does not agree to a deal regarding its nuclear and weapons programs, as well as their support for regional proxies, while Iranian officials have said they are only willing to make a deal regarding their nuclear program. It’s unclear whether either the United States or Iran would be willing to budge on their current stances.
Araghchi spoke with his counterparts from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordan, he announced on Telegram on Monday.
Witkoff will be meeting with Middle East officials ahead of that meeting, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he’s expected to visit on Tuesday. He is also expected to meet with Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gen. Eyal Zamir, who recently returned from a trip to the U.S., where he met with Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trump has threatened to carry out a much larger military operation against Iran if it doesn’t agree to a deal compared to last June’s strikes on three nuclear facilities, while Iranian leaders have warned in response that such an attack would likewise be met with a stronger response than their retaliation last time.
Under Trump’s orders, the U.S. has deployed additional military assets to the region. Last year’s strikes on the Iranian nuclear facilities, which occurred during the Israel-Iran 12-day war, were carried out by American B-2 bombers that took off from Whiteman Air Base in Missouri. The U.S. presence in the region was involved in the mission, helped Israel in intercepting incoming rockets and missiles amid the larger war, and defended against Iran’s telegraphed response targeting America’s largest military base in the region in Qatar.
But, before Witkoff is scheduled to meet with Araghchi on Friday, he will be in Abu Dhabi for trilateral peace talks with Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday and Thursday. The trilateral conversation will resume talks that took place last week.
During a Cabinet meeting last week, Witkoff said progress had been made and that there had been “lots of good things happening between the counterparties discussing the land deal.”
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He and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have both said recently that one of the biggest holdups in negotiations is about territory in the eastern part of Ukraine. Russia not only insists on keeping the territory it occupies, but wants Ukraine to sacrifice additional land it has not been able to conquer militarily.
Later this month will mark four years since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies concluded that the total number of casualties “could reach 2 million by the spring of 2026.”
