2026-07-09T08:00:25.513Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/politics/iran-strikes-kushner-witkoff-flawed-ceasefire
唐纳德·特朗普总统与伊朗签署谅解备忘录、开启为期60天的伊朗核项目谈判窗口的次日，贾里德·库什纳和史蒂夫·威特科夫便致电向持怀疑态度的共和党领导人通报情况。
这份14点文件的条款模糊且可作多种解读，引发华盛顿各界担忧：总统究竟签署了什么协议，又向德黑兰做出了哪些让步。
库什纳和威特科夫分别是特朗普的女婿和特使，二人已花费数月时间主导伊朗问题的幕后会谈，如今正试图向共和党人保证该协议的合理性以及后续谈判流程。据一位熟悉此次通话的人士透露，威特科夫提到二人刚刚对隐蔽的橡树岭核实验室进行了秘密访问，以此作为谈判取得进展的标志。他们在那里会见了技术专家，威特科夫称其中许多专家已随时待命准备加入相关工作。
另据一位熟悉通话情况的人士透露，威特科夫还表示，针对“最棘手的议题”——伊朗核项目的谈判将立即启动。
三周后，不仅技术谈判几乎尚未展开，整个协议似乎已濒临破裂。自谅解备忘录签署以来，双方已发生零星冲突，但最新的冲突升级对这项现已被特朗普宣布“结束”的脆弱协议构成了最大威胁。
伊朗周二在霍尔木兹海峡袭击船只后，美国进行了报复性打击，德黑兰誓言将予以回应。周三，特朗普在安卡拉北约峰会的新闻发布会上承诺将采取行动并谴责伊朗领导层数小时后，美国又发动了新一轮打击。
“我不确定是否还想和他们达成协议，”特朗普在安卡拉北约峰会的新闻发布会上沉思道，随后他又表示不相信伊朗与美国之间会再次爆发战争。
随着该地区重燃战火的可能性上升，美国政府宣称的伊朗政策目标——包括移除伊朗的浓缩核材料——与实现这些目标的可能性（更不用说在60天内完成）之间的差距仍在不断扩大。
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这一切都引发了诸多疑问：签署谅解备忘录究竟取得了多少成果；双方到底达成了什么协议；在油价飙升和要求结束战争的压力日益增大的背景下，威特科夫、库什纳以及副总统JD·万斯是否夸大了他们所取得的外交进展。
“这份谅解备忘录实际上并未解决任何问题，”前国务院职业官员内特·斯旺森说道。他曾在多届政府中担任伊朗政策高级顾问，长达十年之久，并于2025年春季参与了伊朗谈判。他表示，该协议“几乎完全是空想”。
2011年至2013年担任美国国家安全委员会伊朗事务主任的理查德·内夫表示，他早已预料到会出现此类冲突升级，“一方面是因为对基础协议的解读存在偏差，另一方面是因为核心问题一个都没有得到解决”。
“甚至可以说这份谅解备忘录让情况变得更糟，”内夫补充道，尤其是在霍尔木兹海峡问题上。尽管美国政府强调伊朗不能控制这条关键航道，但谅解备忘录本身并未明确规定实现这一目标的具体流程。
“目前似乎仍执着于这个庞大的第二阶段协议，而现实情况是，他们真正需要做的是先明确并规范海峡通行问题，再推进其他事务。但他们并未做到这一点，”斯旺森告诉CNN。“我不知道这是谁的错，是万斯、威特科夫、库什纳还是特朗普，我不知道，但指挥链中肯定出现了明显的失误。”
内夫表示，他“完全将”这份模糊的谅解备忘录的责任“归咎于美国谈判团队缺乏经验”。
在整个伊朗问题谈判过程中，库什纳和威特科夫一直将圈子限制在很小的范围内，严重依赖政治任命人员和顾问，这反映出特朗普政府长期以来对职业文官的不信任。
多位熟悉此次谈判的前美国官员告诉CNN，在谅解备忘录签署前的数月里，许多具备与伊朗谈判复杂协议所需专业知识的职业政府雇员，包括核问题专家，仅被间歇性地咨询过，并未被实质性地纳入库什纳和威特科夫领导的早期决策流程或更广泛的外交努力中。许多职业官员也已被迫离开政府。
与十年前奥巴马时期的伊朗核协议谈判所经历的多年跨部门协作相比，库什纳和威特科夫主导的谈判进程显得截然不同，多位消息人士称其更为临时仓促。
在奥巴马政府时期，政府各部门的专家在塑造和验证2015年伊朗核协议的技术细节方面发挥了核心作用，该协议耗时数年才谈判达成。这一流程由白宫国家安全委员会紧密协调。但特朗普去年精简了国家安全委员会，并在2月启动战争前将国家安全专家边缘化。
白宫承认其与以往核谈判的做法不同，但为这一决定辩护称，此举对于限制泄密、严格保密敏感外交讨论是必要的。
“那些向CNN抱怨自己被排除在外的人显然无法信任他们掌握敏感信息，也不应被纳入国家安全对话，”白宫发言人安娜·凯利本周早些时候在一份声明中告诉CNN。
凯利还驳斥了库什纳和威特科夫未与政府各部门技术专家接触的说法。
“在这些谈判过程中，我们与跨部门机构以及国际原子能机构进行了广泛磋商，”凯利说道，她提到了联合国核监督机构。“如今，来自国家安全委员会、国务院、财政部、国防部、能源部等部门的专家组成了我们的技术团队，正在谈判最终协议。”
据一位熟悉此次访问的人士透露，坐落于田纳西州东部山区的橡树岭国家实验室拥有一些世界顶尖的核武器专家。6月4日，这片占地3.5万英亩的广阔园区的部分区域被封锁，周围布满安保人员、当地警察以及一些人看起来像是武装特勤局特工，这让许多专家感到意外。
一位美国官员表示，在主导伊朗问题谈判数月后，库什纳和威特科夫即将达成一项允许就伊朗核项目进行谈判的协议，并准备与技术专家会面，这些专家可能会在下一阶段的核谈判中发挥关键作用——前提是谈判能够推进到那一步。
多位消息人士称，访问期间，库什纳和威特科夫在主楼机密区域的一个敏感信息隔离室里举行了会谈。讨论重点包括如何处理伊朗的浓缩核材料、气体离心机的工作原理、监测与核查，以及核材料的潜在稀释处理。据这位熟悉访问情况的人士透露，实验室的技术专家被告知“随时待命，一旦接到通知就准备前往参与谈判”，并补充道，这是该实验室专家首次收到此类指令。
消息人士告诉CNN，在最近的打击行动之前，外交行动在最近几周有所发展，与政府各部门的主题专家的接触有所增加。
任何可能达成的协议中，技术最复杂的环节之一便是将伊朗的核材料运回美国。据两位直接了解该问题的消息人士透露，美国正在为伊朗核材料被运往美国的可能性做准备，计划将其送往两个潜在地点进行加工和稀释：橡树岭附近的Y-12国家安全综合体，以及佐治亚州萨凡纳河场址的另一处设施。
要让这一切真正发生，美国需要与一支拥有数十年经验的伊朗团队进行漫长的技术谈判。
“他们基本上自2013年以来就一直沿用同一支团队，”有着近20年职业外交官经历的斯旺森说道。他指出，伊朗外交部长阿卜杜拉·阿拉克奇几乎全程领导了这些谈判。
“他们拥有独特的优势和对过往谈判流程的了解，”斯旺森说。
内夫对此表示赞同，并暗示库什纳和威特科夫的团队可能会被伊朗方面智取。
“伊朗方面将带来一个20多人的代表团，他们当中有人对相关事宜了如指掌，这就是你会被耍的原因，”他说。
对威特科夫担任特朗普最高特使一职是否称职的质疑可以追溯到这项工作启动之初。当时威特科夫首次被赋予伊朗谈判的责任，并开始组建团队推进相关工作。
早在2025年1月特朗普政府就职之前，作为特朗普的长期好友、同为纽约房地产开发商的威特科夫就已成为特朗普在即将上任的政府面临的一些最紧迫外交政策挑战中的事实上的关键人物，包括加沙问题和乌克兰战争。
然而，对于一个从未在政府任职的人来说，威特科夫广泛的职权范围在华盛顿和海外引发了质疑：他是否真的有能力在世界舞台上如此高层的外交活动中履职。
一位直接了解情况的消息人士描述了威特科夫2025年首次参与伊朗问题时的早期行事风格，称他看起来投入，但只是断断续续的，且身边没有协调一致的工作流程。
该消息人士称，威特科夫在参与初期阶段时表现得很聪明，但时断时续，同时处理多个危机，并且经常从房地产或金融的视角看待伊朗问题。威特科夫倾向于将伊朗的核计划视为一笔糟糕的投资，该消息人士说，并暗示解决方案可能包括提供激励措施，以有效“买断”伊朗，使其放弃该计划。
“但这种说法的问题在于，对伊朗来说这不仅仅是一笔财务计算，而是一项国家安全投资，”该消息人士补充道。
尽管威特科夫会提出“正确的问题”，并且似乎会阅读相关材料，但更大的问题在于缺乏连贯性和持续的后续行动，该消息人士说。
“有时候你和他一起参加简报会，感觉话题总是东拉西扯，”这位消息人士说。“他总是时间紧迫，要求速战速决，你会想，‘好吧，我们其实根本没讨论什么实质性内容’。”该消息人士称，由于时间紧张，威特科夫“在加密通讯应用Signal上的回应比在简报会上更及时”。
尽管政府最关心的谈判——伊朗无核化——进展停滞，但白宫仍对威特科夫和库什纳表示信心。
“那些批评特使威特科夫和库什纳先生的人达成过多少协议？他们甚至有多少次参与过此类谈判？”白宫发言人凯利在给CNN的一份声明中说道。“除此之外，二人在商业领域都有着极其成功的交易达成经历。库什纳先生还参与过美墨加协定、海湾合作委员会争端、刑事司法改革、曲速行动，以及将世界杯和奥运会带到美国。他们的批评者无一能取得类似成就。”
CNN的戴维斯·温基为本报道贡献了内容。
戴维斯·温基在CNN的报道得到了Outrider基金会和新闻资助合作伙伴（JFP）的支持。CNN对报道拥有完全的编辑控制权。
The Iran ceasefire was meant to pave the way for a grand nuclear deal. New strikes expose its flaws
2026-07-09T08:00:25.513Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/politics/iran-strikes-kushner-witkoff-flawed-ceasefire
The day after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran, opening a 60-day window to negotiate a deal over the country’s nuclear program, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff got on the phone to brief skeptical Republican leaders.
The terms of the 14-point document were vague and open to interpretation, sparking concern across Washington about what exactly the president had just signed on to and what concessions had been made to Tehran.
Kushner and Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy, respectively, had spent months leading backchannel talks on Iran, and now sought to reassure Republicans on the merits of the agreement and the process to come. According to a person familiar with the call, as a sign of progress, Witkoff referenced a secret trip he and Kushner had just taken to the secluded Oak Ridge nuclear lab, where they met with technical experts, many of whom Witkoff said were on standby ready to join the effort.
Witkoff also said he expected negotiations on “the toughest issue” — Iran’s nuclear program — to begin immediately, according to a person familiar with the call.
Three weeks later, not only have technical talks only barely begun, but the entire agreement appears to be in tatters. There have been skirmishes since the signing of the MOU, but the latest flare-up poses the biggest threat to the fragile agreement that Trump has now declared “over.”
After Iran fired on ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the US retaliated with its own strikes, to which Tehran vowed to respond. On Wednesday, the US launched another round of strikes, hours after Trump promised to do so while denouncing Iran’s leadership.
“I’m not sure I want to make a deal with them,” Trump mused at a press conference at the NATO summit in Ankara, before asserting that he does not believe war with Iran will start again.
With the prospect of renewed fighting in the region, the gap between the administration’s stated goals in Iran, including the removal of its enriched nuclear material, and the likelihood they can be achieved — let alone in 60 days — continues to widen.
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That’s all raised big questions about how much was accomplished with the signing of the MOU; what exactly was agreed to; and whether Witkoff and Kushner, along with Vice President JD Vance, overstated the amount of diplomatic progress they’d made amid escalating oil prices and growing pressure to end the war.
“The MOU didn’t actually resolve anything,” said Nate Swanson, a former career State Department official who spent a decade as a senior adviser on Iran policy to successive administrations and worked on the Iran negotiations in spring 2025. The agreement, he said, was “almost entirely aspirational.”
Richard Nephew, who was director for Iran at the National Security Council from 2011 to 2013, said he anticipated such flare-ups “both because (of) misinterpretations of the underlying deal, and because none of the core issues have been resolved.”
“You could even argue the MOU made things worse,” Nephew added, particularly on the Strait of Hormuz. Although the administration has stressed that Iran cannot have control of the critical waterway, the MOU itself does not lay out a clear process for how to achieve that.
“There still seems to be this persistent focus on this big Phase 2 deal, where the reality of the situation is they really just need to codify and clarify the strait before moving on to other things. They have not done that,” Swanson told CNN. “I don’t know whose fault that is, if that’s Vance, Witkoff, Kushner, Trump, I don’t know, but it’s a clear mistake somewhere in the chain of command.”
Nephew said he “squarely put” blame for the vague MOU “on the inexperience of the US negotiating team.”
Throughout their Iran discussions, Kushner and Witkoff have kept their circle tight, relying heavily on political appointees and advisers, reflecting a longstanding distrust within the Trump administration of career civil servants.
Multiple former US officials familiar with the effort tell CNN that many of the career government employees with the expertise needed to negotiate a complex agreement with Iran, including experts on nuclear issues, were consulted only intermittently in the months leading up to the signing of the MOU and not meaningfully incorporated into the early decision-making process or broader diplomatic effort led by Kushner and Witkoff. Many career officials have also been driven out of the government.
Compared to the years of inter-agency work that went into the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal that was reached a decade ago, the process under Kushner and Witkoff has appeared dramatically different, described by some sources as more ad hoc.
Under Obama, experts across the government played central roles in shaping and testing technical aspects of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which took years to negotiate. That process was tightly coordinated by the National Security Counsel at the White House. But Trump last year stripped down his NSC and sidelined national security experts ahead of his decision to start the war in February.
The White House acknowledges its different approach compared with previous nuclear negotiations but defended the decision as necessary to limit leaks and keep sensitive diplomatic discussions tightly held.
“People who complain to CNN about feeling left out clearly cannot be trusted with sensitive information and are not included in national security conversations,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CNN in a statement earlier in the week.
Kelly also pushed back on the notion that Kushner and Witkoff have not engaged technical experts across the government.
“There have been vast consultations across the interagency, as well as with the IAEA, over the course of these negotiations,” Kelly said, referencing the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency. “Now, experts from the National Security Council, State Department, Treasury Department, War Department, Energy Department, and more make up our technical team that are negotiating a final deal.”
Nestled into the mountains of east Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is home to some of the world’s foremost nuclear weapons experts, many of whom were surprised on June 4 when parts of the sprawling 35,000-acre campus were locked down and surrounded by security personnel, local police and what looked to some like armed Secret Service agents, according to a person familiar with the visit.
After months of leading talks on Iran, Witkoff and Kushner were closing in on a deal to allow for negotiations on its nuclear program, and were ready to meet with technical experts who would likely serve a key role in the next phase of nuclear talks, according to a US official — if they ever got that far.
During their trip, Kushner and Witkoff met inside a SCIF in the classified part of the main building. Discussions focused on how to deal with the nuclear enriched material from Iran, how gas centrifuges work, monitoring and verification, and potential down-blending of nuclear material, multiple sources said. Technical experts at the lab were told “to be on call, ready to travel to go to the negotiations if and when called upon,” according to the source familiar with the visit, who added that it was the first time experts at the lab had received those instructions.
Before the most recent strikes, sources told CNN, that the diplomatic operation had evolved in recent weeks, with greater outreach to subject-matter experts across the government.
Work has also begun on one of the most technically complicated pieces of any possible deal: bringing nuclear material from Iran back to the US. According to two sources with direct knowledge of the issue, preparations are underway for the possibility that Iranian nuclear material will be brought to the US for processing and down-blending at two potential sites, the Y-12 National Security Complex near Oak Ridge, and another facility at the Savannah River Site in Georgia.
For any of that to actually happen, the US will need to engage in a lengthy technical negotiation with an Iranian team that has decades of experience.
“They basically have had the same team roughly since 2013,” said Swanson, who was a career diplomat for nearly 20 years. He noted that Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has led those talks for almost the entire time.
“They just have this unique advantage and knowledge of how this has worked in the past,” Swanson said.
Nephew echoed this and suggested that it could lead to Kushner and Witkoff’s team being outmaneuvered by Iran.
“The Iranians will bring a 20-odd-person delegation, and they’ll have people there who literally know the stuff backwards, and that’s how you get hornswoggled,” he said.
Questions about Witkoff’s fitness for the job of Trump’s top envoy trace back to the earliest days of the effort, when Witkoff was first handed responsibility for the Iran negotiations and began assembling a team to pursue them.
Before the Trump administration even took office in January 2025, Witkoff, a longtime friend of Trump and fellow New York real estate developer, became Trump’s de facto point man on some of the most urgent foreign policy challenges facing the incoming administration, including Gaza and the war in Ukraine.
Yet for someone who’s never worked in government, Witkoff’s expansive portfolio raised questions in Washington and abroad over whether he is truly equipped to operate at such a high level on the world stage.
In describing Witkoff’s early operating style when he first began working on the Iran issue in 2025, one source with direct knowledge said Witkoff appeared engaged but only sporadically, and without a coordinated process around him.
The source described Witkoff in the early stages of his involvement as smart but intermittent, juggling multiple crises, and often approaching Iran through a real estate or financial frame. Witkoff tended to look at Iran’s nuclear program as a bad investment, the source said, and suggested the solution could involve creating incentives to effectively buy out Iran so that it would exit that program.
“The problem with that argument, though, is that this isn’t just a financial calculation for the Iranians; it’s a national security investment,” the source added.
While Witkoff asked “the right questions” and appeared to read materials, the larger issue, the source said, was inconsistency and lack of sustained follow through.
“Sometimes when you get in briefings with him, it was just kind of all over the place,” the source said. “He was always short for time, be quick and out and you’re like, ‘Well, we didn’t really even talk about anything.’” The source said Witkoff was “most responsive on Signal,” the encrypted messaging app, than he was in briefings because of his time constraints.
Despite the stalled movement on the negotiations the administration has said it cares about most — the denuclearization of Iran — the White House continues to show confidence in Witkoff and Kushner.
“How many deals have those criticizing Special Envoy Witkoff and Mr. Kushner closed? How many times have they even been in the room for such negotiations?” Kelly, the White House spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN. “In addition to the above, both have extremely successful careers in business making deals. Mr. Kushner has also worked on USMCA, the GCC dispute, criminal justice reform, Operation Warp Speed, and bringing the World Cup and Olympics to the United States. None of their critics have accomplished anything close.”
CNN’s Davis Winkie contributed to this report.
_Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between_Outrider Foundation_and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting._