WASHINGTON, DC — Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News that any reports of a rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are fake news and “preposterous.”
“I’ll tell you, first of all, it sounds like we have a very similar thought process that half these reports we discount so maybe we should discount more than half,” Witkoff said in an exclusive interview filmed at the White House last week when asked about such reports. “I think this report is going to be deadly accurate here, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli people are a staunch ally of the United States and it goes back the other way. I’ve been at multiple meetings with the president and the Prime Minister—they’re friendly. They’re good friends in fact. That doesn’t mean they agree on absolutely everything and I think that’s the tendency, right? You have a newspaper person who hears about a small disagreement about something that normal human beings like me and you would pay no attention to, but that particular newspaper reporter then conflates that into some large article about some massive issues that they have? It’s preposterous. Israel is a great partner for the United States, strategically, economically, we think very much alike, we have very similar objectives. They don’t want to see a weaponized nuclear state in the state of Iran. And so, I don’t think there’s much daylight between how they think and how we think from a foreign policy perspective.”
Witkoff’s comments come ahead of Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week, where the president is set to go to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. They also come as Witkoff on Sunday meets with representatives of the Iranian government for the fourth time this year in Oman as he seeks to hammer out a nuclear agreement between Iran and the U.S.
Last week, Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported in Hebrew citing two anonymous sources close to Trump that the president was “disappointed” in Netanyahu and was deciding to go it alone in the Middle East separate from Israel. That Witkoff is dismissing that report is a very big deal, and likely welcome news in Israel as Israelis have been somewhat uneasy watching Trump’s inner circle push toward deals with Iran and to end the war in Gaza.
Notably, Netanyahu himself has spoken very highly of his interactions with Trump this year. After his summit in February with Trump, Netanyahu told Breitbart News it was the “best meeting ever” between an Israeli Prime Minister and an American president. As such, it’s been hard to believe that the two sides would have gotten so far off the rails after starting this year so strongly.
Witkoff has been instrumental in negotiations in Gaza and with Iran, and asked where things stand in Gaza he said he is disappointed that all the hostages have yet to be released but holds out hope that Hamas will relent and release them soon. But he said that Hamas has not accepted what he views as a reasonable deal for nearly two months now, and he still thinks Hamas should “say yes to it.”
“There are some aspects of it that are disappointing to me,” Witkoff said. “I wish we could have gotten the last group of hostages out. We may still get them out. I think that it’s a tense negotiation. We’re in talks every single day. We’re in talks with the Israelis, we’re talking to the Qataris, the Egyptians, the Emiratis—everybody is focused, particularly as the president’s trip is coming up, to get a better result, a peaceful result. We’re hoping that we can do that without the Israelis having to go in. There’s some talk about that but I hope it doesn’t have to happen. We have a deal on the table that Hamas could have taken six weeks ago. I’ve discussed this with the Israelis at length and the other stakeholders in this process. Hamas should say yes to it. It is a path to a peaceful dialogue and maybe even a peaceful, long-term, durable solution to this. But Hamas is going to have to demilitarize, and they’re going to have to quickly get to the terms we’ve set forth and we hope that they do.”
Asked why Hamas is not accepting the terms of the negotiation, Witkoff said he cannot logically explain “their intransigence” but also suggested some of their conditions might be getting lost in translation as he and the U.S. are not directly communicating with Hamas but talking to them through intermediaries. He said he would possibly be willing to talk to Hamas directly if the president ordered him to, but really cast doubt on whether it is a good idea for the U.S. to be communicating with a terrorist organization.
“I wish as a sensible person that I could explain their intransigence,” Witkoff said. “I wish I could. But I can’t. Remember, I’m not talking to them directly so there’s some dilution because we’re talking to them indirectly through people and indirectly is not necessarily the best way to negotiate but in this particular circumstance talking to a terrorist group? I might do it if the president allowed me to do it, but it doesn’t feel to me like something that we belong doing right now. They need—I have stated this publicly—they need to show us a sign they are prepared to act in a positive and proactive way that is better for the people of Gaza and that leads to a long-term durable peace. If they do that, I think they’ll get a good positive response from this country and if they don’t they won’t.”
More from Witkoff’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the White House is forthcoming.
