Iran negotiations reveal collapse of US negotiations | Thoughts

The goal of professional organizations is to ensure that the country has negotiators in its place whose only interest in the results of their work is the welfare of their country. As the United States continues what could be the most difficult negotiations of the second Trump administration – with Iran – its negotiating team is led by the vice president of the US, and two real estate funds that have a cryptocurrency component.

Jared Kushner and Steven Witkoff aren’t natural fits for the world story. The former’s association with foreign policy came from his relationship with Donald Trump through his marriage to his daughter Ivanka. With the cooperation that has grown because of their family, Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, went from a criminal case in 2005 to a presidential pardon in 2020 to be appointed as the US ambassador to France in 2025. leadership on “funding, reinvestment, and construction of more than 70 buildings”.

Although Trump said that knowledge in business negotiations is transferred to negotiations, lack of knowledge is not the only lack of qualifications for Kushner and Witkoff. In 2021, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, an investment company that, according to reports by 2025, will have more than $5 billion under management, most of which will come from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which has large amounts of money led by the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. As recently as March 2026, at the end of the US-Iran war, The New York Times reported that Kushner wanted to raise some money from the Gulf governments.

Meanwhile, Witkoff, whose real estate received money from the Middle East, invested seed money in 2024 in a cryptocurrency venture started by members of the Trump family and his sons Alex and Zach. The project, World Liberty Financial, went on to sell only 49 percent to Aryam Investment, an Emirati company linked to UAE National Security Adviser Tahnoon bin Zayed. The deal expired on January 16, 2025. Four days later, Donald Trump was sworn in as president.

The “emoluments” clause of the US Constitution makes it clear that “no Person shall hold any Office (of the US government) … “Emolument” is an old word for money or any other form of payment. It does not take a legal expert to notice the obvious conflict in the roles of Kushner and Witkoff, especially, but not only, in the negotiations with Iran. The Iran conflict has created chaos in the Middle East, and both have shown and undermined the US claims to be a reliable security partner in the region where the missiles fell on the Gulf region. In their current role as peace negotiators, Kushner and Witkoff have a difficult task not only to provide the interests of the Gulf countries, but also to ensure that their security, and the stability of the region, is going forward. The reason for this is that the US negotiators will only shake these countries to establish their finances, but also to make it appear that their work is fraudulent. diplomacy as representing only the US and its interests.

But wait, as American advisors plead, there is more!

Although both men have a long relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kushner’s relationship with Israel is more complicated, as his family has donated thousands of dollars to conservative organizations and “Friends of the IDF” – a US charity that provides funding for the Israeli military. On the business side, with the Saudi money he received, Kushner’s Affinity Partners invested in Israel’s technology sector, while in his role as negotiator in Gaza, Kushner stood before a crowd in Tel Aviv and praised the “amazing soldiers of the IDF” for their “glory and wisdom and courage”.

Gaza seems to be, for Kushner and Witkoff, where the fusion of housing finance and international negotiations is accomplished. Kushner started talking about Gaza as an opportunity to raise money in 2024, and he launched “Project Sunrise” – a particularly Orwellian name given to the fact that in Gaza the sun sets in the Mediterranean but comes from Israel, which was translated by the Board of Peace, whose chiefs Kushner and Witkoff live, into the “Master Plan for Gaza”. The plan seems to have been inspired by the conflict between industrial towns and industrial zones, with clear industrial and residential areas, where Palestinians are forced to walk, unable to move from one part of Gaza to another. At this time, the shores of the lake will be transformed into luxury hotels. Or, as the Times of Israel put it, within 10 years, “70 percent of the Gaza Strip should be commercialized.”

There is, of course, an overlap in every country between business and foreign policy. But they are not the same, and in particular they cannot be united in one person, or, in this case, two. Kushner and Witkoff’s financial exposure makes them suspicious of bribes. As an example, it represents the decline of American dialogue.

American diplomats, of course, have made many mistakes of their own. But they have done this sincerely, doing what they believed to be in the best interest of their country. The mention of Kushner’s and Witkoff’s names in the Washington diplomatic community has raised eyebrows. But in the Middle East region that is most affected, it is unlikely that the partners are approaching the negotiations not about what they can offer America, but what they can offer Affinity Partners and World Liberty Financial.

Add to this the strong public desire of their boss, President Donald Trump, to achieve a deal, or a series of deals, and you have the recipe for chaos. Not because marketing is difficult. Indeed, given the negotiators’ conflicts and lack of familiarity with the region or the world, the ease of the first agreement is higher than it would have been with a nosy and sophisticated diplomat – one of Obama’s negotiators on the previous Iran deal was a nuclear scientist, and it took years to reach an agreement. In fact, what can be done can help the negotiators, but they fail to take into account the interests and similarities of all the parties involved, at least the US, which means that most such trades will be short-lived and easy – sometimes dangerous – to collapse. The Abraham Accords are perhaps the most visible example of this, but the Gaza, Lebanon and Iran “deals” can each show flaws in their results.

But does it matter? The biggest benefit that Kushner and Witkoff bring is their access to a president who is known to be averse to opposing views of the administration. Since agreements cannot be sealed without Trump’s approval, the most demanding version of any deal will not be what it offers to the other side, but what it offers to the White House. As a result, for as long as these things continue, it will be a series of things that are interesting and profitable, but they will not last.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.