US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is in the spotlight as the first phase of the hostage deal began this week. The first three hostages were released on January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration.
Witkoff spoke at a Trump victory rally on Sunday, saying he had received news of the hostage release on his phone soon before he took to the stage. “We had a great team, but it doesn’t happen without Donald Trump… The president was responsible for this release, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude, as do all the families,” he said.
Witkoff was brought back in mid-November by Trump. The New York Post called him a longtime friend of the president and a “fellow real estate developer.” Trump at the time wrote that “Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with, stronger and more prosperous. Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”
The envoy avoided the spotlight until early January when the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration were able to bring together mediators in Doha to try to finalize a deal that had been in the works for a year. In fact, many parts of the deal had not changed, but there was apparently a need to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into accepting the terms.
According to numerous reports, Witkoff made it clear that a deal needed to happen. “Steve Witkoff delivers ‘stark message’ from Trump to Netanyahu, prompting PM to instruct Israeli negotiation team to head to Qatar and strike an agreement; envoy reportedly said Trump ‘has been a great friend of Israel, and now it’s time to be a friend back,” Ynet wrote.
'A deal needed to happen'
This approach has now been called the “Witkoff strategy” by Al-Ain media in the UAE. Clearly, the region is watching this development closely. It knows that the Biden administration failed to get a deal and that Trump is more serious; many countries are willing to be flexible when they hear that Trump wants something, as they are conscious that he is willing to back up words with actions. Their flexibility indicates a mixture of respect and perhaps slight fear regarding repercussions.
“People who know Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, were not surprised to hear that an aggressive meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced the latter to sign a deal that included a ceasefire and the return of hostages,” a report noted at Al-Ain media. “He’s a smart guy and a talented negotiator,” a person close to Witkoff said, according to the Gulf media.
The way in which Trump’s administration, which took office on January 20, has advanced the deal and brought about a ceasefire following a 15-month war is going to reverberate across the region. The Israel-Hamas War was massively destructive and has reshaped the region, resulting in further war.
The October 7 attack in 2023 led Iraqi militias to carry out more than 100 attacks in Syria and Iraq, targeting US troops, as well as those in Jordan. The war also set in motion the Houthi attacks on ships and the war in Lebanon that likely led to the fall of the Assad regime.
The US often reacted to these events but didn’t drive them forward. The Trump administration has come into office trying to bookend this war in Gaza and potentially also push the ceasefire forward in Lebanon. The first sixty days of the ceasefire will end in late January.
The administration will have a lot of work to do. However, the key aspect here is that the region is already seeing progress and things happen that many countries have been waiting for. The fact is that Trump and his envoy Witkoff as well as other members of the incoming administration are now going to be taken seriously.
When the incoming administration says they want the ceasefire to continue, they will be listened to. This will continue until it faces a crisis that it may not be able to handle. For now, however, many countries are happy with what they see; they wanted the war in Gaza to end.
However, some countries will be concerned as Hamas’s power and popularity grow, knowing its destructive abilities. Hence, some will question how much the Gaza ceasefire may empower Hamas. Israel’s inability to defeat Hamas in 15 months may cause concern among Israel’s peace partners in the region. Although it had tried to restore deterrence after October 7, the ceasefire deal may erode that deterrence again.