Steve Whittaker: Who is Trump’s trusted ally in negotiations with Iran?
Indirect negotiations between the Iranian and American delegations will be held in the capital of Oman today, Saturday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi heads the Iranian team, and Steve Whittaker is also present as the special representative of US President Donald Trump and the chief negotiator in these talks.
Steve Whittaker is an unfamiliar name in the international arena and even in American politics, and his presence at this level of international politics is surprising to many analysts; his name came to the media after Trump returned to the White House and became a sensation; a man who is said to have been thrown into the arena of international politics solely due to his long-standing friendship with Trump and whose entire background is related to the field of trade, is currently the main person in charge and the special representative of the US President in three important cases: the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and the Iran case.
Who is Steve Whittaker?
Steve Whittaker is the US President’s special representative for West Asia and an old friend of US President Donald Trump; Witkoff is a Republican Jew born in 1957 (age 68) from New York City and a real estate investor with no formal diplomatic experience.
According to the Al Jazeera website, Witkoff received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Hofstra University in 1980 and his law degree from the same university in 1983. He initially started his career as a real estate lawyer. In 1985, he founded Stellar with his partner and bought low-cost apartments in areas such as Harlem and the Bronx. He then founded his own company, the Witkoff Group, in 1997 and moved into luxury real estate.
The Wall Street Journal published a report on Witkoff in 1998, writing, “Witkoff is a high-risk broker who loves Godfather movies and always hides a licensed gun under his feet.” “Witkoff can see things that others don’t,” says Bob Knakal, a veteran real estate consultant.
He met Trump in the 1980s and has a long-standing relationship with him. He has used his real estate expertise to amass a significant fortune, creating more than 70 properties in major cities in the United States and abroad.
As the Witkoff real estate portfolio has expanded, it has offices throughout New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, and its notable projects include the Bark Lane Hotel, the Times Square Edition Hotel, and the 11-story Murray Street Tower.
Witkoff has since served on the New York Real Estate Executive Council, the Jeffrey Mobil Foundation Board of Trustees, and Hofstra University’s Board of Trustees.
Relations with Trump
Witkoff is a longtime friend of the US president. During Trump’s previous presidency, he supported his policies in the Middle East and was one of his supporters in last year’s presidential election. Whittaker advised Trump on his taxes during his first term and was the first witness in Trump’s $250 million tax fraud case in New York.
Whittaker was one of Trump’s entourage during the assassination attempt on Trump at a Miami golf course in September last year. “The president-elect trusts him as a negotiator and dealmaker,” Whittaker’s lawyer, John, said of him and his relationship with Trump. “He’s a man of integrity, a gentleman, and he has some of Trump’s salesmanship. Whittaker is good at spotting opportunities and fixing things. He sells and moves on to the next project, unlike Trump, who likes to hold onto his properties for decades.”
In November 2024, just days after Trump won the presidential election, Steve Whittaker was appointed as the U.S. special envoy for the Middle East. The appointment came as a shock and surprise to many in diplomatic circles, as Whittaker had no foreign policy experience or a history with the US State Department, but he was surprisingly able to play an effective role in some of the complex negotiations.