When the Negotiating Table is a Targeting Opportunity for Regime Change
In his Alternet article last week, ‘Jared Kushner Has Some Explaining to Do’, Thom Hartman brings to light a grim possibility.
What if the talks in Geneva with Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff (Special Envoy to the Middle East), and Iranian negotiators, were just a ruse to get Iranian leaders gathered together so the U.S. and Israel could kill them all?
The Kushner-Netanyahu Connection: Family Ties and Longstanding Hostility
According to Hartman, “Netanyahu, during his visits to New York over the decades, was close enough to the Kushner family that, as the New York Times reported, he slept in Jared’s childhood bedroom. Jared Kushner didn’t grow up watching Netanyahu on the news the way the rest of us did. He grew up knowing the man as something close to a family institution.”
“And that man, who has said publicly that he has “yearned” to destroy Iran’s military and political leadership “for 40 years,” is the same man whose government may have been coordinating directly with Kushner in the days before the most consequential American military action since the invasion of Iraq or the Vietnam War.
Timeline of Events Leading to Catastrophe
The timeline leading up to the assassinations and war with Iran:
In late December 2025 Netanyahu met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. At this meeting Netanyahu was unequivocal in stating he did not want to continue negotiating a no-nuclear weapon deal with Iran. What he wanted, instead, was to wipe out Iran’s underground missile installations.
In spite of Netanyahu’s directive, negotiations resumed and a third round of talks between the U.S. and Iran wrapped up in Geneva on Feb. 26th & 27th. “The Omani foreign minister, who’d been mediating the talks for months, told CBS News on the eve of the bombing that a deal was “within our reach” and that Iran had fully given in to American demands and agreed it would never produce nuclear material for a bomb, or an ICBM capable of striking the United States.” Of interest is the fact that, in the days prior to meeting with the Iranians in Geneva, Steve Witkoff had flown to Israel and was briefed directly by Netanyahu and senior Israeli defense officials. Then he, and Jared Kushner, flew to Geneva to sit directly across the table from the Iranian negotiators, who mistakenly thought the Americans were dealing in good faith.
A fourth round of meetings was scheduled for Vienna the following week. The Iranian foreign minister told reporters his team was ready to continue the talks. On the morning of Feb. 28th, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (the one that manages Iran’s nuclear program) were sitting in their offices most likely deliberating whether to accept or reject the Kusher-Witkoff proposal. American and Israeli intelligence had verified that senior Iranian leaders were gathered at three locations on Saturday. How they had this intelligence is unknown.
So, in less than 48 hours after the talks in Switzerland had concluded, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and all of his top decision makers, the equivalent of our President and his cabinet, were assassinated by U.S. bombs. Video evidence now shows that a U.S. tomahawk missile also struck a school the same day, killing 175 little girls and teachers.
Key Questions: Was Diplomacy a Deliberate Trap?
Why, if Netanyahu had told Trump in December not to negotiate a nuclear agreement with the Iranians, did Kusher and Witkoff proceed to meet with them in Geneva? Surely, they must have known of Netanyahu’s new directive.
Were the negotiations only a red herring, a set-up, to destabilize Iran by bombing a regime change and killing all of Iran’s government in one decapitating strike?
Iranian Perspective: A Ruse to Lull and Strike
Iranians now believe that the Geneva talks with Kushner were a set-up, and “Tehran now views the Kushner-Witkoff negotiations, as, in their words, a ruse designed to keep Iran from expecting and preparing for the strikes.”
Proving that Kushner was setting up a double-cross on the Iranians may be difficult, but a thorough investigation of key players, including Steve Witkoff, is in order. Congress needs to ask some tough questions and they need to be answered under oath.
Trump's Revealing Response: Leadership Vacuum and Uncertainty
Following the multiple assassinations, President Trump was questioned by a reporter in the oval office as to who he had in mind to take over the leadership in Iran. Trump stated, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead. We had some in mind from that group. That group is dead. We have another group in mind, but they may be dead also, based on reports. Then you have a third wave coming in. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
Consequences: Erosion of Trust and Global Repercussions
“The United States must realize it no longer has the right to attack Iran and should understand the consequences of its arrogance. No right. Not legally. Not morally. Not practically. The right evaporated when they assassinated a Supreme Leader during negotiations. The right disappeared when they bombed schoolgirls.” - Ali Larijani, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary.
Clearly, no government would ever assume good faith with the U.S. after all this. When a country uses the negotiating table as a targeting opportunity, it fouls every administration that comes after it.
Everyone in the world is watching.
