‘Promising talks underway’: Trump envoy says US, Iran edging closer to peace deal

Washington hopes for lasting peace in the Middle East, says Trump’s envoy

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on June 24 said that talks between Washington and Tehran are making headway, raising hopes for a long-term peace agreement following weeks of high-stakes conflict between Israel and Iran.

“We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors… The conversations are promising,” Witkoff said during an interview on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle.

“Now it’s for us to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace agreement, and I am very confident that we are going to achieve that,” he added.

Witkoff’s remarks come just a day after President Trump declared a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, halting an escalating aerial conflict that began on June 13 when Israeli jets targeted Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure.

Why this matters

The United States and Iran have been holding indirect talks since April in a bid to resolve long-standing tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program. While Iran maintains its nuclear activities are strictly peaceful, Washington has long insisted on measures to ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons.

The recent round of hostilities, which included US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and a retaliatory Iranian missile attack on a US base in Qatar, pushed the region dangerously close to full-scale war. Trump’s ceasefire announcement on Monday helped defuse the crisis, at least for now.

Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, has justified its strikes as a means to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capability. Tehran, on the other hand, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.

The US, a key ally of Israel, now finds itself in a balancing act, reassuring its regional partners while exploring the potential for diplomatic engagement with Iran.