The president’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has no idea how or when Trump’s war in Iran will end.
Witkoff, Trump’s longtime golf buddy turned administration official, had been leading efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, which is one of several reasons the Trump administration has offered as to why it launched unauthorized strikes on the country.
When asked by CNBC how the war could conclude, however, Witkoff admitted he had no clue.
“I don’t know,” Witkoff said before stumbling over his words. “I know this: President Trump is the wrong guy to go up against. That’s what I know.”
“He has drawn a red line, and that is that Iran cannot have a weapon. And, yes, they say they don’t want one, but all of their actions indicate the exact opposite. So he’s just not the right guy to tangle with, and I would suggest they don’t,” he continued.
Other officials in the Trump administration have given varying answers as to when they believe the war with Iran, which is now entering its second week, will conclude.
Last week, Trump said strikes on Iran could last another four to five weeks. A few days later, he appeared to suggest that the U.S. had already been victorious in its war, but that it would still continue.
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he said at his Doral, Florida resort on Monday.
The Pentagon in a post on social media Monday said the U.S. has “Only Just Begun to Fight.”
The Trump administration has also given varying reasons for launching the country’s first full-scale war since 2003.
Several explanations for the war have been given, including to combat terrorism, to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, so Iran could not get ballistic missiles, to counter a preemptive attack from Iran, to aid Israel as it strikes Iran, for regime change, and because Iran “just wanted to practice evil.”
Witkoff, who led nuclear negotiations with Tehran, in his explanation for the war claimed Iran was “probably a week away” from having nuclear bomb-making material.
That claim largely does not square with US intelligence on Iran’s nuclear capabilities or with the administration’s past assertions that the military had “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities just eight months ago.
