News analysis suggests Trump probably signaling engagement with Iran diplomatically

U.S. President Donald Trump may be taking a different approach to Iran in his second term. And he may be signaling to Iran that he is.

News ID: 5855

Date: 24 January 2025 - 19:15

TABNAK, Jan 24: Via a series of remarks both spoken and tweeted, an appointment, removals, and an outward refusal to take radical anti-Iran figures on board, U.S. President Donald Trump could be sending signals to Iran that he may be opening to diplomacy regarding Tehran.

That would be despite his first-term record of fierce antagonism toward the Islamic Republic, which came in the form of a campaign of “maximum pressure,” the assassination of a top Iranian military commander, and unquestioning support for Iran’s self-avowed adversary, the Israeli regime.

It is also unclear whether the moves signal a shift in tactics, strategy, or attitude. Tentative as they are, and taken together, they do represent a marked shift from Trump’s last term.

The U.S. president has  reportedly put his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in charge of the Iran portfolio as well, which U.S. media say suggests Trump is willing to test diplomacy with Tehran.

A man of diplomacy?

Witkoff is, like Trump, a real estate investor and a close confidante of the U.S. president who reportedly had a major role in securing a ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance group of Hamas and the Israeli regime. A Friday report by The Financial Times cited some officials associated with Trump as having told foreign diplomats that Witkoff would “lead efforts to see whether a diplomatic accommodation is possible.”

In an interview with Fox News earlier, Witkoff had said that Trump wanted to solve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program “diplomatically.”

At an Oval Office event, though, when Trump was asked whether Witkoff would talk to Iran directly, he said “no.” In response to another question about a potential Israeli strike on Iranian sites, Trump said he hoped a deal could be reached to avoid such a scenario.

“Hopefully, that could be worked out without having to worry about it. It’d be nice… it would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step,” he said, referring to a military strike.

Axios reported later that Trump was yet to make a final decision about Witkiff “but was heading toward picking” him.

The hawks out in the cold?

Trump has also so far refused to offer posts to some of the most vicious anti-Iran figures in Washington. In his first term, his inner circle teemed with such individuals.

Michael Flynn, who was Trump’s first national security adviser in 2017, John Bolton, a future adviser, Mike Pompeo, who was CIA director and later secretary of state in Trump’s first term, and Brian Hook, who was an envoy for Iran, were only some of the national security and foreign policy officials under Trump who were known more by their antagonism toward the Islamic Republic than any other political or military credentials.

On Thursday, Trump  removed security protection for Pompeo and Hook, according to The New York Times, which cited “people with knowledge of the matter.” Two days before that, Trump had pulled the security detail for Bolton.

Days earlier, Trump had via a social media post removed Hook as a presidential appointee to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

A history of antagonism

While most of those officials had in one way or another criticized Trump — and the U.S. president is known for ejecting people criticizing him — they also had in common a history of what The New York Times called engaging in “an aggressive posture” toward Iran.

It is unclear whether Iran would take those signals to mean a serious shift in attitude. President Masoud Pezeshkian, in what was meant as a message of diplomacy for him, told NBC on January 15 that Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon and that it would be ready for negotiations with the United States under Trump if it trusted that Washington would not stop complying with an agreement after it was made, as Trump did in 2018.

Trump then withdrew the United States from a multilateral deal with Iran that had been reached in 2015 before launching a “maximum-pressure” campaign of stringent sanctions on the country.

The withdrawal came despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was in charge of monitoring Iran’s nuclear commitments under the deal, was in report after report confirming Iran’s full adherence to the agreement and the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities.

Trump was seen at the time as seeking to renegotiate the deal, which had taken years of diplomacy to build and which was working to the satisfaction of all parties involved — including the United States under former President Barack Obama, who negotiated the deal.

In a short interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at the Oval Office on Thursday, January 23, Trump called Iranians “amazing” people and seemed to dimly acknowledge Iran’s refusal to develop nuclear weapons on religious grounds. But it remains to be seen now whether Iranian officials will be convinced by the U.S. president’s rhetoric and actions to reengage.