In an exclusive, nearly 40-minute interview with Breitbart on May 8, Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff denounced U.S. neoconservatives for their “bias toward military interaction,” as opposed to President Donald Trump’s, and his own, preference for dialogue to resolve problems.
“So in their minds anything that is of a military nature to be a solution to that problem, they have a bias towards that. They give no consideration whatsoever on what the consequences are on that,” he said of the neocon current in U.S. politics. “You hear this all the time, you hear people say ‘no, no we have to go treat that person with force. The Iranians are going to manipulate you in a dialogue and so you’re not going to be effective there.’... The neocon element believes that war is the only way to solve things. The President believes that his force of personality, the way he is going to respond to certain situations, can bend people to do things in a better way in the interests of the United States government. I believe in that, too.”
Breitbart asked Witkoff to respond to those, such as Fox News, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (the self-proclaimed high priests of neoconservatism) and Politico, which have published big attacks on him in recent weeks. Witkoff said that he has been a “very loyal” friend of President Trump’s for a long time, and the two had spoken “endlessly about lots of things” before Trump was re-elected, “but I actually believe in his policy.” He cited, in particular, Trump’s policy of “settling the Iran conflict through dialogue.”
It should be noted, however, that there are still pitfalls to be overcome in this otherwise laudable policy. Witkoff reiterated that the Trump administration seeks an end to Iran’s entire nuclear enrichment program, not just weapons-grade enrichment—a demand that Iran has said it will not accept, as it denies Iran its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which it is a signer.
Witkoff called elimination of full enrichment “a more permanent solution to that crisis than any other alternative. That would physically change exactly how Iran was approaching a nuclear program. If we get them to voluntarily shift away from an enrichment program where they can enrich to not have centrifuges, to not have material that can be enriched to weapons-grade levels 90%, if we can get them to voluntarily do that that is the most permanent way to make sure that they never get a weapon.” That would be the best solution, Witkoff said, citing Trump’s threat that if Iran does not do so “voluntarily … the alternative is not a great alternative for them.”
Breitbart’s report on the interview, published May 9, concludes with the teaser that “much, much more from Witkoff’s exclusive with Breitbart News is forthcoming.”
