U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Israel on Monday morning to discuss the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, a day after Hamas killed two IDF soldiers and the Israeli Air Force struck in Rafah in response.

Hamas terrorists shot an anti-tank missile at heavy machinery used by the IDF to destroy the terrorist organization’s tunnels in Rafah, killing two soldiers on Sunday. Hamas claimed that the explosion was due to the machinery driving over an IED, but the IDF suspected the attack was part of an attempt to capture soldiers, Walla! News reported. 

There have been several other recent attacks by Hamas, including two on Friday in which terrorists emerged from tunnels and shot at IDF soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the heads of Israel’s defense establishment to “take strong action against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip,” his office stated soon after the Israeli strikes on Sunday. The Israeli army, however, announced on Sunday night, “In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire. The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”

The Rafah strikes came nearly a week after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. Hamas was supposed to free all 48 hostages that remained in Gaza at the time within 72 hours, according to the summary of the 20-point plan released by the White House. However, it only released the 20 living ones, and has been gradually handing over the bodies of deceased hostages; 16 bodies remain in Gaza.

In addition, Hamas terrorists have repeatedly launched attacks on Israeli soldiers, and Palestinians have crossed into areas in which IDF troops are deployed, in accordance with the ceasefire deal, leading the soldiers to shoot and kill several of them.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, called for “a full renewal of the fighting in the [Gaza] Strip, at full force. False imaginings that Hamas will change its skin or will even fulfill the agreement it signed have turned out, as expected, to be dangerous to our security. The Nazi terrorist organization must be fully destroyed, as soon as possible.” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich simply posted: “War!”

The first phase of President Donald Trump’s deal had Israel withdraw to the “yellow line,” moving out of Gaza City and other areas, but remaining in control of 53% of Gaza, including Rafah. The IDF began posting concrete blocks painted yellow along that line on Sunday morning, as a warning to “Hamas terrorists and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said when he announced the erection of the physical boundary on Friday.

Hamas has also been clashing with and executing members of rival gangs and Gaza residents it has accused of collaborating with Israel. The State Department released a statement on Saturday warning that a Hamas “attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement” and, should they continue, “measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.” 

Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday night that the Rafah crossing, the main entrance for goods into Gaza, would remain closed as long as Hamas does not release the hostages’ bodies. However, IDF soldiers posted videos to social media of trucks of fuel entering Gaza on Sunday. 

Witkoff and Kushner, who has a key role in the administration’s Middle East efforts, are expected to start talks with Jerusalem about the second phase of the ceasefire deal, in which Hamas would be disarmed, Gaza would be demilitarized, the IDF would withdraw further and be replaced by an international stabilization force, and a technocratic government would be installed in Gaza, under the supervision of a Peace Board led by Trump and including former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This story was updated on Oct. 20, 2025, at 04:20 a.m. ET.

An Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital that reportedly killed 20 people, including four journalists, was a “tragic mishap,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, not long after President Donald Trump criticized the attack. 

“Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home.”

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he is “not happy” about Israel’s strike on the Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip.

“I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it,” Trump said, while noting that he did not know the details of the strike.

The president added that he is also committed to getting the remaining hostages out of Gaza, though he expressed doubt that a deal would come through.

“At the same time,” he said, “we have to end that whole nightmare. I’m the one that got the hostages out. I got them out, all of them. [Middle East envoy] Steve Witkoff has been amazing.”

Israel has said that 20 living hostages are still being held in Gaza, but Trump on Monday repeated a claim that the true number is “probably a little bit less than 20, because I think one or two are gone.” Israeli officials have not said that any of the 20 hostages believed to be alive have died recently. 

Hamas, Trump said, is unlikely to release the hostages. 

“I said a long time ago I’m going to get them out, but when we get down to that final 10 or 20, these people aren’t going to release them, because [Hamas is] dead after they release them,” Trump said. “It’s a nasty situation, very nasty. Horrible thing.” 

The Israeli Defense Forces announced that it would conduct an inquiry into the attack. “The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such. The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops,” IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.

Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, is slated to host a breakfast conversation on Saturday in Southampton, N.Y., focused on global challenges including the Israel-Hamas war, as part of the Milken Institute’s Hamptons Dialogues.

Witkoff, who will sit in conversation with Michael Milken, is co-hosting the breakfast with his son Alex, two weeks after meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani in Spain to discuss ceasefire and hostage-release efforts.

The breakfast is one of the few sessions during the weekend-long confab that will touch on the Middle East. According to an agenda viewed by Jewish Insider, the conversation between Witkoff and Milken will focus on how “[e]conomic, technological, and geopolitical competition is restructuring the global order” and notes that “[s]trategic rivalry with China, instability in the Middle East, the war in Eastern Europe, and shifting alliances are testing established frameworks for cooperation.”

On Friday, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman will speak about K-12 education and the Alpha School, a project he has promoted in recent months that eschews DEI programming and focuses on AI-driven education. Later on Friday, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are speaking on a panel about the U.S.’ economic advantages.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is slated to speak on a Sunday morning panel focused on U.S. economic security, followed by back-to-back sessions about the future of American cities, featuring NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Carlyle Group cofounder David Rubenstein and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross.

Rubenstein will again take the stage Sunday afternoon for a conversation about sports investments, which will also feature Len Blavatnik. 

Other figures at the annual gathering include former First Lady Jill Biden, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks, Alphabet President and CIO Ruth Porat and actor Jerry Seinfeld.

A new bipartisan letter sent Friday by 16 House lawmakers to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff argues that any nuclear deal with Iran must permanently dismantle its capacity to enrich uranium — a notable message particularly from pro-Israel Democrats to the administration.

The letter highlights that an insistence on full dismantlement of Iran’s enrichment capabilities is not only a Republican position, and that President Donald Trump will not be able to count on unified Democratic support for a deal that falls short of that benchmark. Previously, 177 House Republicans said they also demand a deal that does not allow enrichment and some pro-Israel Democrats have expressed the view individually.

“We wholeheartedly agree that Iran must not retain any capacity to enrich uranium or continue advancing its nuclear weapons infrastructure,” the letter, which frames the appeal as an endorsement of Rubio and Witkoff’s public positions on the subject, states. “There is widespread bipartisan support for this requirement and we appreciate your commitment to this essential cornerstone of any agreement.”

The letter highlights the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which mandates that any agreement with Iran be submitted for congressional review, and emphasizes, “for any agreement to endure, it must have strong bipartisan support. We urge you to engage with Congress as negotiations proceed to ensure that any final agreement commands broad support.”

The lawmakers called on the officials to work with the U.S.’ European allies to “promptly invoke the snapback mechanism” to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran if talks fail to yield an agreement that fully dismantles Iran’s nuclear program.

They note that, given the Oct. 18 expiration of the snapback provision, “the process must begin by late Summer at the latest if no deal is reached. Iran’s repeated violations must be met with clear consequences.”

“The Iranian regime must understand that the United States is unwavering in its demand that Iran’s uranium enrichment capability be totally dismantled,” the letter reiterates. “We appreciate your leadership on this pressing matter vital to America’s national security interests and stand ready to work in a bipartisan manner to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

The letter, led by Reps. Laura Gillen (D-NY) and Claudia Tenney (R-NY), was co-signed by Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Grace Meng (D-NY), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Chris Pappas (D-NH).

Pappas is also mounting a run for the U.S. Senate.

Morgan Ortagus, a key member of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s team, is departing his office, Jewish Insider has learned. 

Ortagus, the deputy special envoy, has been removed from her portfolio in the special envoy’s office, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to JI. Ortagus had been overseeing the Trump administration’s Lebanon policy and had wanted to take over the Syria file, but was unsuccessful in doing so. 

Israel’s Channel 14 reported over the weekend that Ortagus was expected to leave her position.

Ortagus, who supported Trump’s 2024 bid and campaigned for him, did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the move or if she plans to continue serving in the administration in another capacity. 

The White House did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Ortagus’ future in the administration. 

President Donald Trump appointed Ortagus as Witkoff’s deputy in January, which he announced in an unusual statement expressing reticence about her appointment.

“Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson,” Trump said in the statement, referencing Ortagus’ tenure as spokesperson for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens.” 

Ortagus’ departure comes less than two weeks after Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw a widespread purge of officials at the NSC, including those overseeing the Middle East and Israel and Iran portfolios. This followed Trump’s decision to pull former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, another Iran hawk in the administration, from his role and instead nominate him to be his ambassador to the United Nations.

The staffing developments inside the administration are taking place against the backdrop of an effort by Witkoff and Trump to move ahead with nuclear talks with Iran and a continued push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Ortagus was leaving the National Security Council. Ortagus was not a member of the NSC.

Speaking at an event celebrating Israeli Independence Day on Monday, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff suggested that he expects additional countries will join the Abraham Accords in the coming year.

“We think [we] will have some, or a lot of announcements, very, very shortly, which we hope will yield great progress by next year,” Witkoff said of the prospects for additional normalization between Israel and Arab states, at an event organized by the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Witkoff only gave a glancing mention of Iran, with which he is the lead U.S. negotiator, in his brief remarks, pledging that Tehran would never obtain a nuclear weapon, but not elaborating on the talks beyond that.

The U.S. envoy emphasized the need for Israeli unity, saying, “I urge the Israeli people to choose unity over division, vision over disagreement and hope over despair. When you do, Israel’s future will shine brighter than ever.”

Witkoff also said that one of the most joyous moments of his life was visiting with recently freed hostages from Gaza and singing Am Yisrael Chai with them and their families. He pledged to work “tirelessly this year” toward “peace, prosperity and for Israel, unity.”

The event for Yom Ha’Atzmaut also featured remarks from Secretary of Energy Doug Burgum.

When the billionaire developer Steve Witkoff was tapped as the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy last November, several of his former associates in the real estate industry applauded the unorthodox appointment to a high-profile role overseeing some of the most sensitive foreign policy issues facing the United States.

Even as he had no diplomatic experience, Witkoff, a close friend of President Donald Trump, won praise as a shrewd negotiator and creative dealmaker with sharp business instincts who could draw on decades of experience navigating New York City’s cutthroat real estate market — where he had once been known to carry a handgun during his early years overseeing distressed properties.

But more than three months into his new posting, Witkoff, whose portfolio has expanded beyond the Middle East, is now facing scrutiny from a growing number of critics casting doubt on his qualifications as he assumes a leading role in nuclear negotiations with Iran as well as direct discussions with Russia to end its war against Ukraine.

Among some of Witkoff’s fellow developers who are already souring on his early tenure as Trump’s top envoy, there is skepticism that his insistent focus on striking a deal above all else, an asset in his former job, may be a liability as he engages in high-stakes negotiations with bad-faith actors such as Iran and Russia seeking potentially dangerous concessions from the United States.

“They came in almost wanting a deal more than anything, and that’s not a very good negotiation posture,” Dan Kodsi, a developer in Miami, where Witkoff also owns property, told Jewish Insider of the envoy’s team. “I think they showed their hand way too early, almost like having a deal was more important than having a good deal.”

Kodsi, who said he voted for Trump in the most recent election, suggested that Witkoff’s skills as a developer could potentially be useful in diplomatic efforts. “Developers deal with very tough situations. We’re always facing a wall — always looking for a door or a window to escape,” he explained in a recent interview. “It makes us good at being able to persevere and get around things and to get a deal done.”

But the “problem,” he said, is there are limitations to those analogies, particularly during negotiations with ruthless dictators in which traditional business incentives are irrelevant. “This is not business. It’s not like, ‘I’ll give you more money and we will make a deal,’” he said. 

By initially suggesting that the U.S. was open to compromise with Iran, Witkoff left his team exposed with little leverage, Kodsi told JI, even as Trump has dangled the threat of military action to thwart the regime’s nuclear ambitions. “These guys have not kept any cards in their back pocket for negotiation,” he said of Witkoff and his team, which now includes a group of technical experts led by Michael Anton, the State Department’s director of policy planning.

Witkoff, for his part, has continued to use business analogies to clarify his approach to the ongoing negotiations, even while acknowledging he is now pursuing goals that are far more lofty than any real estate transaction.  

“The enormity of it sort of struck me,” he said of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, in a WABC Radio interview on Tuesday. “I’ve been in the real estate business, and in the past, it was buying a bigger building, or building a bigger building,” he added. “And this was much more about saving people’s lives, ending the carnage, being there on behalf of the American people, on behalf of President Trump. I had to pinch myself.”  

“From what I can tell, these guys are just trying to make a deal,” Henry Liebman, a top developer in Seattle, said. In the process, he added, “it almost seems like they’re getting played.”

He described a similar feeling about the nuclear talks with Iran — which he called “an existential issue for the world, nuclear and weaponization.”

“It felt like I was a fiduciary, that I was doing something larger than myself on behalf of, again, the United States government and President Trump, with strong directives from him as to what he wanted to achieve,” Witkoff said in the radio interview with John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.

Henry Liebman, a top developer in Seattle, argued that Witkoff and his team appear “naive” in their dual efforts to negotiate with Iran and Russia, which he characterized as misguided. “With Iran, you can’t let them have nukes and you can’t have them supporting proxies” in the region such as the Houthis in Yemen, he told JI, while describing proposed land concessions to Putin as “not a good idea.”

“From what I can tell, these guys are just trying to make a deal,” Liebman reiterated. In the process, he added, “it almost seems like they’re getting played.”

In recent weeks, Witkoff has drawn backlash over contradictory remarks about Iran’s ability to enrich its own uranium, a key issue in the ongoing talks, as well as a series of stumbles in which he has praised Putin and suggested he had been “duped” by Hamas amid failed negotiations to release the hostages held by the terrorist group in Gaza.

His continued lack of clarity about permissible continued nuclear enrichment by Iran has raised alarms among conservatives who are skeptical that Witkoff is in command of technical details crucial to reaching a deal with the Islamic Republic distinct from the agreement brokered by the Obama administration a decade ago — which opponents had viewed as a pathway to a nuclear weapon. 

Trump, who recently said that the talks are going “very well” and suggested that “a deal” is imminent, pulled out of the original agreement during his first term.

Witkoff has not publicly shared details on the latest round of negotiations with Iran that concluded in Oman last weekend. Though he said in a statement in mid-April that Iran “must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program” in order for a deal to “be completed,” he has reportedly told Trump administration officials that seeking full dismantlement, which the Iranians have resisted, is unlikely to result in a deal.

His mixed messaging has raised questions about whether Witkoff is now on course to simply revive an old agreement that has long been anathema to most Republicans.

In his radio interview on Tuesday, Witkoff sought distance from the original nuclear deal with Iran, calling it “fundamentally flawed because the sanctions sunsetted, and yet the mandate as to how you’re supposed to conduct yourself — not enriching, not weaponizing — that did not sunset,” he said, referring loosely to terms of the agreement. 

“I am concerned that in the face of ill-thought tariff policy, and resistance to Ukraine-Russia resolution, he and his administration are looking for a victory — any victory — and that early compromise on Iran is a bad thing,” Steve Minn, a real estate developer in Minneapolis, told JI. “We have Iran on the ropes,” he said. “Let’s keep Saudi Arabia and Egypt eager to see Iran diminished.”

“You and I both know, in business, one-way options don’t make sense,” he added. “Theyre not fair, and that was a one-way option for the Iranians, and it’s got to be rectified.”

As a fourth round of discussions with Iran is expected to be held in Rome on Saturday, Steve Minn, a real estate developer in Minneapolis who describes himself as an “Israel hawk” and voted for Trump three times, also voiced reservations about the current trajectory of U.S. talks with the Islamic Republic.

“I am concerned that in the face of ill-thought tariff policy, and resistance to Ukraine-Russia resolution, he and his administration are looking for a victory — any victory — and that early compromise on Iran is a bad thing,” Minn told JI. “We have Iran on the ropes,” he said. “Let’s keep Saudi Arabia and Egypt eager to see Iran diminished.”

In a statement to JI on Wednesday, Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said Witkoff “is a trusted friend of President Trump, and he left behind a massive business enterprise to serve our country as a special envoy.”  

“His results speak for themselves, including the release of Marc Fogel from Russia and hostages trapped in Gaza,” Kelly continued. “The president is incredibly proud of all Mr. Witkoff has accomplished to help restore peace through strength, and he will continue to leverage Mr. Witkoff’s talents to advance his America First foreign policy vision.”  

“He’s not going to go in there and be the best person in diplomacy on Day One, but he knows that he has a mission and he has to get Problem A solved — and there are all these different variables in the problem he has to think about,” Eric Benaim, the founder and CEO of Modern Spaces, a residential brokerage firm in New York City, told JI. “It’s just like a negotiation of anything.”

To be sure, Witkoff still has several defenders in the real estate world who feel that he is doing a good job with a uniquely challenging set of issues. “I cannot think of any one instance where I thought Steve is underprepared or overwhelmed,” Joseph Moinian, an Iranian-born real estate developer in New York City who has known Witkoff for years, told JI. “With him you know that the best outcome is the one he has achieved.”

“If anyone thinks that he is ‘in over his head’ it is not because he is incapable,” Moinian said earlier this week, “it is because the problems are extremely and increasingly impossible.”

Eric Benaim, the founder and CEO of Modern Spaces, a residential brokerage firm in New York City, likewise expressed satisfaction with Witkoff’s approach and said he believed that a background in real estate development is helpful to shake free of a status quo that has hindered progress in the region, even as he acknowledged there is a “learning curve” for such diplomatic work.

“He’s not going to go in there and be the best person in diplomacy on Day One, but he knows that he has a mission and he has to get Problem A solved — and there are all these different variables in the problem he has to think about,” Benaim told JI. “It’s just like a negotiation of anything.”

But as Witkoff has struggled to find his footing on Middle East policy and other key issues, Eric Anton, a veteran real estate broker and Jewish Republican in New York City who has worked on deals with the developer, suggested the newly minted envoy could be reaching a point at which he is over-leveraged as he takes on a dizzying array of responsibilities in his initial months on the job.

“He’s got so much on his plate,” Anton told JI, “ it’s like drinking 20 milkshakes.”

A group of pro-Israel Jewish House Democrats wrote to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday warning that Iran must restore International Atomic Energy Agency access to its nuclear sites before any deal can move forward in earnest.

Under a reported proposal put forward by Iran, Iran would not allow such inspections to resume until well into the implementation of a nuclear agreement.

“Absent verifiable data on Iran’s current nuclear activities, it is not possible to conduct meaningful, comprehensive negotiations or assess compliance with any potential future agreement,” Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) wrote, in a letter obtained by Jewish Insider. “The failure to establish a true baseline undermines the credibility of the negotiating process and exposes the United States and its partners to strategic miscalculation.”

They said that international inspectors must regain “full, unfettered access to Iran’s nuclear facilities, before establishing final parameters of a possible agreement.”

The lawmakers argued that, because inspectors have been blocked from key sites in recent years as Iran has significantly increased its enrichment and stockpile of nuclear materials, the U.S. and its partners “lack reliable visibility into the scope and status of Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Restoring inspector access is the necessary foundation for any serious diplomatic effort,” the lawmakers wrote. “Without verified insight into Iran’s current nuclear activities, the United States cannot credibly assess risks, define objectives, or safeguard the interests of our allies.”

The three Democrats said that better knowledge of Iran’s current activities and stockpiles is “particularly urgent” given recent assessments that Iran could quickly have sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons, its missile program continues to advance and it continues to support regional terrorism.

The letter is the latest in a series of signs in recent days that pro-Israel Democrats are alarmed by the Trump administration’s apparent interest in moving quickly toward a nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic.

Asked on Thursday about a New York Times report that the U.S. had rejected an Israeli plan to strike Iran, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) told JI, “We should never play public footsie with the parent company of terror and one of our top adversaries. We should take the hardest line against Iran’s terror and nuclear programs.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) similarly expressed alarm a day prior about the Times story.

Iran International reported on Thursday the alleged parameters of a deal that Iran had put forward — a proposal similar to the original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Under the deal, Iran would “temporarily” halt its enrichment to 3.67% in exchange for access to frozen assets and the ability to export oil. It would not restore IAEA inspections or “end high-level uranium enrichment” until the second stage of the deal, at which point the U.S. would be required to lift some sanctions and prevent the implementation of U.N. snapback sanctions on Iran.

Under the third phase of the proposed deal, Iran would move its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country, while the U.S. would lift all sanctions on Iran. Iran would not be required to curtail its missile program or support for terrorism — which have prompted some of the sanctions in question. Iran is also demanding that Congress approve the deal. 

Iran International reported that Witkoff “welcomed the proposals,” to the surprise of Iranian negotiators. Some in the U.S. have worried that Witkoff, who has delivered mixed messages publicly on the U.S. position, would negotiate a weak deal.

The proposal saw immediate backlash from Iran hawks.

“Terrible proposal. Iran has no reason to enrich ANY uranium. 3.67% enriched is just a few weeks away from weapons grade. And Iran is proposing to only TEMPORARILY limit enrichment to this level,” Fred Fleitz, the vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, a pro-Trump think tank, said. “This is a Iranian cynical ploy to buy time and continue its weaponization program.”

Fleitz served for several months as chief of staff of the National Security Council in Trump’s first administration.

“The regime wants a return to the failed JCPOA, which President Trump rightly rejected. The U.S. response must be firm: dismantle your nuclear program completely and verifiably — or face consequences,” FDD Action, an advocacy group affiliated with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “Congress must reject any deal that leaves Iran’s nuclear infrastructure intact.”

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, said the proposal is “unserious and should be dead on arrival.”

The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is leading U.S. nuclear talks with Iran, again suggested on Monday that the U.S. is willing to allow Iran to maintain some level of nuclear enrichment, as it did during the original 2015 nuclear deal. But Witkoff appeared to walk back those remarks on Tuesday, saying that the U.S. is demanding that Iran eliminate its enrichment and weaponization programs.

“The conversation with the Iranians will be much about two critical points: One, enrichment. As you mentioned, they do not need to enrich past 3.67%,” Witkoff said on Fox News on Monday. “You do not need to run a civil nuclear program where you’re enriching past 3.67%. This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program. And then ultimately verification on weaponization. That includes missiles.”

Allowing Iran to continue any nuclear enrichment provides Tehran with an easy pathway to a nuclear weapon, critics have argued.

But Witkoff offered a different position on Tuesday in a post on X.

“Any final arrangement must set a framework for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East — meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program,” Witkoff wrote. 

Witkoff’s follow-up post reportedly came around the time of a White House meeting held by President Donald Trump on the nuclear negotiations. The new comments appeared to contradict both his remarks on Fox News and other recent comments that the U.S. would be open to a deal that included verification that Iran is not weaponizing its nuclear program, and that dismantlement was only an opening negotiating position.

Witkoff’s initial comments on Fox set off a wave of concerned reactions from the U.S. and Israel. Some Iran hawks appear concerned that the Trump administration may be headed toward a deal similar to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Analysts seen as more sympathetic to the regime, meanwhile, celebrated the initial remarks.

Following Witkoff’s Tuesday comments, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) decried anyone in Trump’s orbit pushing for a repeat of the 2015 deal.

“Anyone urging Trump to enter into another Obama Iran deal is giving the President terrible advice,” Cruz said. “[Trump] is entirely correct when he says Iran will NEVER be allowed to have nukes. His team should be 100% unified behind that.”

Cruz was responding to a post from conservative commentator Mark Levin expressing deep skepticism of a new deal with Iran. Levin has openly criticized Witkoff’s apparent concessions to the Iranian regime.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) responded similarly to Levin’s post.

“As President Trump said, the only solution is Iran completely dismantling its program, or we should do it for them,” Cotton said. “Those who minimize the risk of this regime are dead wrong. Just look at the hundreds of missiles Iran launched at Israel in the past year, aimed at massacring civilians (including many Americans living in Israel). Imagine how much worse it would be with a nuclear weapon.”

Last week, before talks in Oman began, a group of nine House Republicans led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) wrote to the administration standing behind the position that Iran’s nuclear program must be “fully and verifiably dismantled.”

“The JCPOA’s failed sunset provisions, lack of robust verification mechanisms, and allowance for continued centrifuge development have all but ensured Iran’s ability to achieve nuclear breakout within a matter of months,” the lawmakers wrote. “The regime in Iran must understand that there is no situation which allows it to retain a nuclear weapons capability, and there is no scenario in which the United States will accept anything short of its full and permanent disarmament.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett argued on X on Tuesday, before Witkoff’s walk-back, that “the only deal worth making with Iran” would be one that not only completely dismantles its nuclear program but also ends its sponsorship of terrorism and its ballistic missile program.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the US has amassed for itself unprecedented leverage,” Bennett said. “It would be a historic miss to allow Iran to regroup and threaten us—the US, Israel and the rest of the world—again.”

Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider he believes Witkoff “wants to return to” the JCPOA and had, in his public comments, “effectively conceded enrichment to the Iranians.”

“His challenge is that he has to come back with a deal that doesn’t look like [the] JCPOA, because then Trump would be embarrassed by having signed a deal that essentially is the same deal he withdrew from in 2018,” Dubowitz said. “Witkoff’s challenge is to figure out how to present [the] JCPOA but to do it in a way that looks like it’s a better deal.”

Dubowitz argued that it’s essentially impossible to implement sufficient safeguards and verification to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear warhead — as Witkoff had appeared to suggest on Fox — “because the Iranians can build a warhead in a laboratory the size of a classroom in a country that’s two-and-a-half times the size of Texas.”

“I think [Witkoff] comes out and makes these comments about enrichment and then congressional Republicans get upset or [National Security Advisor Mike] Waltz and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio push back hard internally, and [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth, and then he comes back and makes his statement today,” Dubowitz said. “He’s kind of going back and forth between conceding enrichment and dismantlement depending on who his audience is.”

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, told JI that allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium to 3.67% “would enable” Iran to “extort the United States,” and said that Trump should remain consistent on insisting on full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program.

Brodsky said that allowing Iran to enrich to 3.67% was the “original sin” of the JCPOA “and that set the table for the situation that we’re in today.”

“We need to learn the lessons of the past,” Brodsky said. “The JCPOA framework failed … It’s a flawed, fundamentally failed framework of dealing with the Iranian issue.”

Brodsky praised one element of Witkoff’s original Fox comments: limits on Iran’s missile program. The lack of provisions relating to the missile program “was one of the flaws of the original JCPOA,” Brodsky said.

“But also there are a lot of other questions regarding sanctions relief and mechanisms to prevent Iran from using sanctions relief … under any deal from funding its malign behavior in the region,” Brodsky continued.

Dubowitz argued that it will ultimately be up to Trump whether to accept a deal along the lines of the JCPOA and “spin it as the greatest deal ever negotiated” in order to bring sufficient congressional support. 

He said he thinks it will be difficult for congressional Republicans to agree to a deal similar to the JCPOA given that many of them rejected that deal in 2015. “The Iran issue, to me, is the exception where Trump cannot have his way … given the congressional investment in this issue over 20 years.”

Dubowitz added that Israel would also need to decide whether and how to publicly oppose such a deal and how to calibrate its military operations, or if it would defer to Trump. He further warned that allowing Iran — and potentially Saudi Arabia — to enrich could set off a worldwide “proliferation cascade.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who also served in senior State Department and Pentagon roles in the Biden administration, told JI that Witkoff’s comments on Fox were “certainly confusing to many audiences — the Iranians, Congress, maybe others in the administration” coming as Witkoff’s first public interview following the talks in Oman.

“It may be that the president is zig-zagging a bit on what he thinks is an acceptable deal, and that means his negotiator has to make adjustments, but it’s probably a mistake to do that in public on a day-to-day basis,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said he continues to believe it will be difficult to achieve an agreement that would dismantle the Iranian nuclear program. He said he did not think it’s likely that the administration or Congress would agree to a deal that allows continued enrichment, adding that returning to a JCPOA-type scenario would be technically difficult given the advancement in Iran’s nuclear program in the ensuing years.

Shapiro suggested it’s more likely that talks will stall, that snapback sanctions will be imposed and that Iran will respond by withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or making a move toward weaponization, which would require the U.S. and Israel to consider a military response.

The former ambassador argued in a recent article that the opportunity is ripe for military action against Iran’s nuclear program. “The timing, need, and opportunity may never be more compelling. And, arguably, a military option is more feasible now than at any time in recent decades,” Shapiro wrote.

Shapiro told JI that, alternatively, the U.S. and Iran could agree to an extension of the snapback deadline to continue talks and/or a “freeze-for-freeze” deal with some sanctions rollback and potentially a reduction in Iran’s nuclear stockpile. “That’s a possible scenario, but even that agreement is going to be very difficult to reach, given how advanced the Iranian program is right now.”

Witkoff’s follow-up comments on Tuesday appeared to ease some concerns in Washington.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has been skeptical of efforts to negotiate with Iran, approvingly reposted Witkoff’s later comment, saying, “Completely agree with Special Envoy Witkoff’s statement that any deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program cannot include an enrichment capability because that is how you make a nuclear weapon.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) responded to Witkoff’s post saying, “Any deal with Iran must include a complete end to their nuclear program. No exceptions.”

AIPAC in a statement thanked Witkoff “for your insistence that Iran eliminate its enrichment and weaponization programs entirely. Time-bound negotiations must permanently and verifiably dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”