• OUR MAIN GRAPHIC MEME: J.D. Vance pushes out – not so gently – the two puppets of Bibi Netanyahu, the real-estate agents Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff… They did everything possible to destroy trust in the negotiations… Witkoff was carrying everywhere a “beeper”, a souvenir given to him by Bibi…
ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ

After many months of failed, credibility-starved diplomacy led by Netanyahu’s stooges, Kushner and Witkoff, Trump is forced to turn to J.D. Vance, one of the few figures capable of rebuilding trust, narrowing the agenda to Iran’s nuclear program, and securing a deal both sides can claim as a win.

By Nick Stamatakis

The sudden (possible – still not final) elevation of J.D. Vance to a central role in U.S.–Iran negotiations is more than a personnel shift. It is an implicit admission that past approaches have failed, largely because credibility was absent from the table.

Let’s be clear: Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were never credible negotiators. Both came from real estate, not diplomacy, and both were widely perceived as aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu’s agenda rather than acting as independent representatives of U.S. interests. For goodness sake, when Bibi visited the Kushner home many years ago, Jared used to go to sleep on the couch, so Netanyahu had his room for the night…. This symbolized a deeper problem. When one side sees the negotiator as an extension of a sworn enemy, negotiations are dead on arrival.

And that is precisely what happened. Their approach (maximalist demands, pressure-first tactics, and public positioning) undermined any realistic chance of a durable agreement. Their own statements over time have only reinforced the perception that they were not trying to build a deal, but to constrain or collapse the process. They were seen as following clear orders from Netanyahu.

Now the situation is worse. Trust is not just eroded. It is broken. From Tehran’s perspective, the United States has negotiated while simultaneously using force, including strikes in 2025 and again more recently, as talks reportedly neared a conclusion. Whether one agrees with those actions or not is beside the point. In diplomacy, perception defines reality, and the perception is that Washington cannot be relied upon to negotiate in good faith.

This is where J.D. Vance matters.

Unlike Kushner and Witkoff, Vance enters without deep entanglements in regional alliances or legacy diplomatic frameworks. He has shown skepticism, at least, if not outright opposition, toward military escalation and is politically closer to non-interventionist voices like Charlie Kirk. That does not make him pro-Iran. It makes him potentially credible.

Credibility is also why other global powers may quietly support his role. Russia and China both understand that without a minimum level of trust, no agreement will hold. Vance may be one of the few figures in Washington who can begin to rebuild that baseline. And possibly lead to broader negotiations to define the multipolar world order.

But credibility alone is not enough. The scope of negotiations must change.

Any viable path forward must focus narrowly on Iran’s nuclear program. Attempts to expand talks into broader regional or ideological demands have consistently failed. A focused nuclear agreement (verifiable, limited, and practical) would allow both sides to claim victory. Donald Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), could present a new deal as a decisive success, a “victory”. Iran, in turn, would secure relief without appearing to capitulate.

This is not about ideal outcomes. It is about achievable ones. Even so, there is no guarantee that this will be a success.  According to most analysts, Iran has the upper hand.  It will take some “sqeezing” from Russia and China to force Iran back to the negotiating table.  And the U.S. and Israel can forget any demands on Iran’s missile program.

The broader strategic reality is unavoidable: the United States is seeking a way to reduce its exposure in the Middle East. A workable agreement with Iran would enable that shift, lower the risk of escalation, and reduce pressure on an already fragile global economy. In an increasingly multipolar world, stabilization—not dominance—is the more realistic objective.

None of this guarantees success. But if diplomacy is to have any chance, it requires a negotiator seen as independent, a focused framework, and an outcome both sides can sell as a win.

For the first time in years, those conditions may be within reach.

=====

SOURCES

March 25, 2026, n.stamatakis@aol.com   www.helleniscope.com

DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. Russia will not be a peacemaker. According to the NYTT, she sold oil to India at $22.00 a barrel, just before the orange menace started his stupid war. Putin was considering a peace deal with Ukraine. This is a God sent to Putin. He knows Iran is not going anywhere. Its not as if either of them have much of a choice in friends.

    As for Vance, he might be better than Kushner and Witcoff, but that’s not a high hurdle to jump over. Vance has no experience in diplomacy. Trump is supposed to be against DEI. Yet, all of his cabinet are so unqualified, as to make us wish Trump had picked someone from the street, with his eyes closed. It would have been an improvement.

    • Russia and China do not want a global recession and, even worse, a depression… You have to understand that, since times immemorial, the biggest daily headache of any Chinese leader is how to keep employed and happy the 1.4 billion people he rules…. Where and how much Russia will sell her oil and gas if we are in a depression? This is simple common logic – no need for deep analysis… But they want America to get out of the Middle East and they already have almost achieved that. And with America out of the Middle East Israel could be slapped back to size.. is America out of the Middle East? Both aircraft carriers are out and almost all bases are destroyed- certainly all their radars are gone…

  2. Aside from including Vance in negotiations, Trump should fire Rubio and Hegseth. He should put Tulsi Gabbard in as Secretary of State and find someone else to be Secretary of Defense.

    If Trump wants to end this disaster he has to remove the Evangelical Zionists and listen to rational and responsible people. Why he listened to the Evangelicals is beyond my comprehension.

      • It was a coalition that put Trump in power. Including millions of Americans tired of wars. I voted for Trump because of the neocons intent to start wars in the Middle East and the Democrats anti Russian hysteria which proved the war in Ukraine through the intent to expand NATO to the Russian border.

        It is true, Evangelicals were part of the coalition that got Trump in. But they were a small part and most Trump voters are nothing like them. There are many pro lifers including Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics who voted for Trump. Pro lifers should not be defined by the Evangelical Zionists whose commitment to Israel outweighs everything else.

        The Democrats are also the LGBT party supporting sex changes for kids. Trump looked very good compared to all of them. A reminder also that in 2017, Democrat Paul Begala said Trump could prove he was not a Russian stooge by bombing Russia.

        Trump stood out as the sane one compared to both Democrats and pro war Republicans. I will admit that I made a mistake in voting Trump in light of the war he started.
        In his first term, he did not turn his administration over to the Evangelicals so what he has done by turning his administration over to them now was not foreseeable.

        • To be fair, it was Kamala Harris who made abortion rights her main platform. Yet that simply made her all the more unappealing for pro-life americans who might have otherwise voted for her. Pro-lifers weren’t going to vote for Harris.

          Trump was clever to downplay the topic of abortion in 2024. He still got the pro-life vote, but he won over some pro-choice voters also.

          • Even if Kamala had won, we’d still be at war. Biden wasn’t a peacemaker by any stretch of the imagination. Obama took Bush’s two wars and trebled them to seven.

            THAT’S how powerful our Establishment is.

  3. There is a new book out. What In Me Is Dark. We live in Paradise Lost. We condone bombing of other nations. We condone nuclear weapons. We condone bioweapons. We condone madmen running our nation.
    We are powerless to make change that aligns with God’s commands. We sat by and watched the genocide of Gaza. We accept the new Board of Peace. We accept data centers all over the US that surveil us. What In Me Is Dark? Enjoy the day.

  4. Imagine being in the US Army (or Marines), you’re in a battalion (or MEU) about to invade Iran and someone asks you, what are you fighting for?
    To ponder the question you need to push aside thoughts of being hit in the face by an Iranian suicide drone, and the daunting reality that the likelihood of being killed suddenly and despite all of your training by long range projectiles is relatively high.
    You’re going into someone else’s country in a war your president started. Everyone in that country hates you. Your enemy has experience fighting invasive military forces, they’re at home, well equipped and well adapted to the terrain. You are the interloper.
    So what are you fighting for? How do you answer that question?
    “For my president?”
    “For Israel?”
    “For the subtle interests of the global elite?”
    There isn’t a world where you can honestly say you’re fighting for your country or any semblance of freedom. Iran poses no threat to America or its freedom.
    You don’t fully understand why your president bombed Iran in the first place. There isn’t even a good delusion of Democracy to invest in back home, it’s all bullshit and you know it’s bullshit.
    So what motivates the American soldier to obey, fight and die for something they don’t support or understand?
    It’s the same thing that motivates cops to continue policing an obviously broken and corrupt system. It’s habit and comradery.
    They do what they’re trained to do and they fight alongside each other because they know each other. They have a team with its own distinct colours and uniform and they have enemies without those colours and uniforms.
    They don’t trust their own government but they don’t need to. They’ve trained and suffered together enough to form a bond. So they fight with and for each other because they’re a team, it’s part of the human condition. They don’t need a reason, just a team.
    This comradery is how the ruling class manipulates men to continue serving when there’s nothing actually worth fighting for and not even enough lies left to tell.
    h/t AnthasGate and Blair Cottrell (Telegram)

  6. The whole MAGA movement by Trumpism, will be studied by historians
    and political scientists to explain its deficiencies; of how the American Public was blinded by its elusiveness ,subject to attain ultimate power in the White House. Who is to blame? Most likely, the political parties who pick (Unqualified)
    candidates ,that are put on the ballot for the highest position in the land.
    How did the American Citizens vote against themselves? Trump wraps himself around the American Flag -wears a USA Flag pin, yet he only supports his red states that supported him, by ignoring the blue states a violation of true loyal presidential leadership to all 50 stars/states as designated on the US Flag.
    These candidates that are picked to become “Commander of Chief of the Armed Forces” with out any military experience or philosophical maturity in American and World History. The whole oligarchy of the Trump Administration is driven by “Art of the Deal” and not by Art of Diplomacy”! Trump’s resume as an aggressive real estate developer and casino operator, is somehow acceptable of being distinguished from this experience , as an anathema , obsolete of sophisticated statesmanship?
    A Presidential Candidate, who is involved in so many scandals- from Epstein to… etc. followed by 4,000 law suites. The whole mess is a can of worms without any national merit. Regrettably , this MAGA Corruption by application is marked by undetermined consequential damages to our political system. Is this a reflection of American Society ? Is this what we desire ? Our duty today, is to be responsible, to remedy this ill-conceived condition which has lost its guardrails by lack of institutional control. The times are a changing, the national demographics are changing, he may be the last of the Mohicans? The last WASP in the White House?

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