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 Iran’s elected leadership. The Grayzone revealed that in October 2024, while chairing a panel for the pro-war Vandenberg Coalition, Stewart argued that Washington should “disabuse people” of the idea that any figure within Iran’s current system could serve as an “honest broker”.
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Before joining the talks, Stewart worked with FDD Action, which describes itself as a 501(c)(4) advocacy organisation that works directly with congressional offices and executive branch policymakers, offering legislative drafting, private briefings, policy analysis and training. News24 reported that Stewart had been associated with the lobbying wing of FDD, which it described as an organisation that has consistently advocated a more aggressive military stance towards Tehran.
The appointment of Stewart follows the collapse of earlier US-Iran talks in February, when Trump’s lead negotiators, Jared Kushner and Witkoff, were accused of arriving with aggressive and unrealistic demands.
Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who mediated the talks, said at the time that “significant progress” had been made and a deal was on the table.
US failure to strike a deal has fuelled accusations that Kushner and Witkoff are poor choices to negotiate on behalf of the US. Both are widely viewed by critics as “Israel Firsters” a popular term describing US officials who put Israels interest above US interest.
For critics, Stewart’s appointment is not an isolated personnel change but further evidence of Israel’s undue influence over Trump’s Iran policy. That concern intensified after reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a highly classified Situation Room meeting in February to press Trump to join a major assault on Iran, reportedly presenting regime change as a plausible outcome and the risks of war as manageable.
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