US Vice President JD Vance, on Friday, refuted a report claiming he received private communication from Iran against Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who play an important role in the ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran.
A report from Drop Site had claimed that Iran raised alarm over Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff manipulating the negotiations for financial market gains.
The report also alleged that Iran’s negotiating team had sent out a private message to Vice President Vance during the Switzerland talks to take him into confidence and flag their suspicions.
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Was Iran miffed with Witkoff and Kushner?
Under the range of issues Iran allegedly felt with Kushner and Witkoff’s presence during the negotiations was their conviction that the pair was “more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the negotiations to profit in financial markets than they were in reaching a deal”, the news report claimed.
Iran reportedly alleged in June that profits from such alleged manipulation had reached $9 billion and requested a share in such proceedings via a formal written request. “We have conveyed through intermediaries that $4.5 billion of this sum should also be allocated to the Iranian side,” an Iranian official told Drop Site. “The exchanged texts will ultimately become part of the historical record.”
Vice President Vance, however, had openly denied claims of receiving any private communication from Tehran and expressed his faith in Witkoff and Kushner’s role during the negotiation process.
“This is completely bogus. I never received a message like this,” he wrote on his X handle. “If I had, I would have said: Jared and Steve are trusted members of the president’s team and very dear friends. No one has done more than the two of them to work towards peace and prosperity in the region. The idea they’re trading on insider information is absurd.”
“I see a lot of BS flying around and I normally just ignore it. But Steve and Jared are good dudes and I’m honored to work with them.”
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Vance ‘far more dependable’
Iran had flagged the continued presence of Kushner and Witkoff as a threat to chances of “turning the June 17 framework into an enduring deal”, as per Drop Site’s conversation with an anonymous Iranian official. Their negotiators claim to have sent a private message to Vice President Vance during talks in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland in late June.
As per the Iranian official’s revelations, the decision to communicate directly with Vance came from being, in part, convinced by US mediators that Vance would be interested in securing a deal for the long-term future of the US, considering his bid to be the Republican candidate for the next Presidential elections.
“He is the most senior US official ever to have met with representatives of the Islamic Republic; he is known to have been skeptical of the war; a diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran would strengthen his political standing; and he is far more dependable than any of the available alternatives—namely, Kushner and Witkoff,” the Iranian official told Drop Site.
Tehran’s direct communication with Vance allegedly came after previous efforts to address these issues with the White House directly, lapsed. Messages communicated to the White House are shared with the entire team, including Kushner, who is a private citizen and does not hold any official governmental position.
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The same Drop Site report however said that White House spokesperson Anna Kelly rejected claims of any private message being transmitted to the United States.
Report says Vance received private message from Iran against Kushner and Witkoff; VP refutes claim
