A team of 3 top negotiators from America is coming to Pakistan to take forward the ceasefire deal with Iran. According to the White House, this delegation led by Vice President JD Vance will hold talks with Iran-Pakistan in Islamabad. Apart from Vance, this team includes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
It is important to understand the personality, political role and religious identity of these two leaders, because this also affects their diplomatic approach.
Pakistan and iran Both countries have been increasing anti-Zionist and anti-Israel rhetoric in national and international policy.
But the reality of politics is different. When both Pakistan and Iran will sit at the negotiating table on Friday, there will be two senior leaders sitting in front of them whose religious faith is Jewish, but both of them will lead America. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are both hardcore Jews.
Steve Witkoff: An Example from Business to Diplomacy
Steve Witkoff, American real estate tycoon and donald trump Is a close friend of forty years. Experts believe that he has become the most influential peace ambassador in world politics today.
Steve Witkoff, a Jewish businessman born in the Bronx, New York, founded the Witkoff Group in 1997 and amassed a fortune worth billions of dollars.
In Trump’s second term, he was appointed special envoy for the Middle East. He is Trump’s most trusted face on the ongoing ceasefire talks with Iran, Gaza peace and Russia-Ukraine issue.
With a tough business style and unwavering determination, he is considered an expert in closing big deals. Trump calls him an “unrelenting voice for peace.” Currently his net worth is around $2.3 billion. Steve Witkoff’s journey from business to diplomacy exemplifies where personal conviction and strategic skills are at work to resolve global conflicts.
Also read: How strong is the ‘Israeli lobby’ in the US, which Joe Kent hinted at while resigning?
He is playing a leading role along with Jared Kushner and JD Vance in the Iran-US talks to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Steve Witkoff, a Jew, has been a strong supporter of pro-Israel ideology and played a key role in garnering Jewish donors during the Trump campaign. His religious beliefs are personal and emotional. Witkoff never considered his religious faith to be a hindrance in diplomatic work and adopted a practical, business-like approach.
Witkoff is often seen praying at the Western Wall of Jerusalem and considers Israel’s security his priority.
Apart from JD Vance, Iran and Pakistan have to talk to only Witkoff.
Jared Kushner: The Modern Orthodox Jew who sealed the deal
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the quiet face of world politics but a strong-willed negotiator. With a gentle nature, deep thinking and unwavering patience, he resolves issues where enmity of decades stands. In 2017-2021, he laid the foundation of the Abraham Accords. His negotiation style transcends emotions and focuses on national interests and economic opportunities.
Kushner was the chief architect of the Abraham Accords (2020). In this, full diplomatic relations were restored between UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco with Israel. This is considered the largest peace initiative in the Middle East in decades.
Apart from this, Kushner, along with Steve Witkoff, finalized the release of Israeli hostages in 2025 and a temporary peace agreement in the Gaza war. During the talks in Doha, their old relations gave a sharp result.
Kushner prepared a 181-page plan called ‘Prosperity to Peace’ for the Israel-Palestine Peace Plan (2020), which focused on economic incentives. Although not implemented, it formed the foundation of the Abraham Accords.
Kushner’s strength lies in long-standing relationships and his ability to “close deals”. He also helped Saudi Arabia in arms deals worth billions of dollars.
In terms of religious belief, Kushner is a Modern Orthodox Jew. His family keeps a kosher home, observes Shabbat and is deeply rooted in Jewish traditions. His wife Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism before marriage. The stories of Holocaust survivor grandparents are part of their identity.
Kushner wrote at one point that when he traveled to the Middle East for meetings with Arab leaders, Kushner tried not to embarrass his hosts; For this he avoided eating food served by them which was not ‘kosher’ (pure according to Judaism).
During his first visit to Saudi Arabia with Trump, the dinner menu included meat that was not kosher. “So I pushed it off my plate,” Kushner writes.
relations with netanyahu
Kushner greatly praises Israeli PM Netanyahu and calls him ‘a courageous defender of Israel’. Referring to his first meeting with Netanyahu, Kushner says, “This was in the early 2000s, when Netanyahu was not in office and was spending weekends at Kushner’s home in New Jersey.” At that time, Kushner’s father was a well-known real estate developer.
This story has been published from a website named Forward. according to the report Netanyahu slept in Kushner’s bedroom, while Kushner slept in the basement, on pull-out sofas, accompanied by Netanyahu’s security guards. Troubled by jet lag, Netanyahu picked up a book from the shelf in Kushner’s room. Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations”. He read half of the book, and the next morning asked the young Kushner if he could take the book with him so he could read it completely on the trip.
But Kushner said that “This was a gift given by his girlfriend, which he did not want to separate from himself. He wrote, “Bibi smiled and very politely left the book there.”
The pairing of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner is called ‘Kushkoff’ in some places in the media. Now the pair faces the challenge of presenting their side to the negotiators of Iran and Pakistan.
Jared Kushner, sharing his experiences as a negotiator, has written, “Steve and I’s experience as a person who deals with people is that you have to understand people, you have to be able to get them to see where they are, and then see who you think is playing the game, and how much leeway do you have to push things forward?”
He further said, “Many of the people who do this work are history professors because they have a lot of experience, or they are diplomats. But being a deal maker is a completely different thing. It is a completely different ball game.”
A similar test for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner is scheduled for Friday.
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