Trump’s new Iran negotiator is Israel lobbyist who denounced talks with Tehran

The US has added a hardline Iran hawk and former pro-Israel lobbyist to its negotiating team, in a move that is likely to fuel speculations that Washington’s Iran policy is being shaped by ‘Israel First” officials. Nick Stewart, formerly managing director of advocacy at FDD Action, the lobbying arm of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), has joined the office of special envoy Steve Witkoff, one of Trump’s main negotiators with Iran.  The appointment comes after months of failed diplomacy in which Washington’s demands shifted from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to adopting Israel’s maximalist red lines: no uranium enrichment, and then the inclusion of Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Stewart has previously denounced the premise of negotiations with […]