We've been at it now for 21 hours and uh we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of [00:00:15] America. Looks like Vice President JD Vance is no longer involved in the phony negotiations with Iran. And that leaves Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, someone who has personally known Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since he was a kid. And special envoy Steve Witkoff who [00:00:34] sabotaged the peace talks right before the US carried out its second surprise strike on Iran to negotiate a peace deal. That's a disaster. But making matters worse is the fact that now Trump is bringing in a new player to try to make a deal, allegedly. His name is Nick Stewart, [00:00:52] and he's as bad as he can possibly get, and I'm not kidding about that. In fact, he's a lobbyist for Israel, and he's been overt and outspoken about his view that we should not be negotiating with Iran in the first place. How is this a- good candidate to engage in [00:01:11] peace negotiations with Iran. And what does this signal to the Iranians? It signals that we're not serious about a peace deal. Anyway, Nick Stewart, the managing director of advocacy at FDD Action, that's the lobbying side of the foundation for defense of democracies. [00:01:27] Don't be fooled by their name, it's a think tank. Has joined the office of Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for peace missions, two US officials and a third person familiar with the move said. The FTD, which was originally named Emmett, was founded back in 2001 with [00:01:43] the mission of enhancing Israel's image in North America and the public's understanding of issues affecting Israeli Arab relations. We're learning a lot about those relations these days, aren't we? Now, it's just a hardcore Zionist group representing Israel. That's all it is. Unfortunately, [00:02:01] they have a lot of power in Washington. Its experts appear across major US news networks, often introduced as nonpartisan analysts. Its reports circulate through the US Congress and White House. Its website prominently states that it accepts no funding from foreign governments, [00:02:20] sure. I'm sure that's the case. The name itself, by the way, of this organization invokes the- of democracy and that lends it an air of institutional legitimacy few politicians publicly challenge and it should be challenged. Because the FDD is run by a network of former IDF and Israeli [00:02:39] intelligence officials who have been aggressively egging on war with Iran. Stewart actually happens to be their number one lobbyist, number one. In fact, reporters over at the Gray Zone found this clip from a panel that Stewart co chaired. back in 2024 for the pro-war Vandenberg coalition. [00:03:00] So here's what he had to say about uh Iran's current president, Massoud Pesachian. I want to stay with you because this is on the week in New York City, the UN General Assembly and Iran's new president, Massoud Pesachian. is running around New York, touting diplomacy [00:03:20] and I'm a reformer and the media is magnifying that exactly as Iran had hoped. They even brought out Zarif from her retirement, right? So there is this narrative that Iran is turning the chapter on the butcher of Tehran and there's a new president, there's a new reformer in [00:03:37] town. Obviously, it shouldn't be much of a newsflash, Pesachian is a part of the theocratic authoritarian government of Iran, right? This man is not a reformer and we shouldn't buy into that narrative. Because what it does is it throws us off our guard and we think, this is different. What [00:03:57] do you say to that? Because that impacts policy, right? If we think that we have an honest broker across the table, we are coming to the table with a completely different mindset. And I think it's important we disabuse people of that notion. Yeah, that guy is definitely serious about securing a peace deal with Iran. Right, now sitting next to Stewart in that video, [00:04:18] uh were the Secretariat of uh the self proclaimed Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pallavi. And also there was a neoconservative ideologue Elliot Abrams on that panel. Now more recently, Stewart penned an op-ed for FDD action advocating for Trump's war. This was back in January, January [00:04:39] 9th specifically. He wrote that the Trump administration has notched tactical win after tactical win against Iran. Killing Qasem Soleimani in 2020, imposing crippling sanctions on the regime, degrading its terror proxy network, and striking at the heart of its nuclear infrastructure. [00:04:59] But without follow through, these tactical wins risk being lost to time. God, I hate these people so much. He finished with this. History rarely offers windows this clear. And they don't stay open forever. The Trump administration should act decisively, strategically, and soon [00:05:18] to turn a string of historic tactical victories into the strategic triumph that has eluded American policymakers for more than 40 years. The Iranian people appear ready. I'm sure you care so much about the Iranian people. The question is whether we are. Well, um no, turns out [00:05:37] Stuart, we weren't ready. And our administration was ill informed uh with really bad intel from the Israelis, but I suspect that was on purpose. By the way, Stewart's bio on the FDD action website reads as follows. Nick Stewart previously served as chief of staff to the State Department's [00:05:56] Iran Action Group, where he helped develop and implement the maximum pressure campaign against the regime in Iran. And on top of that, Norman Rule, a former national intelligence manager for Iran, said of Stewart that he is a supporter of sanctions, get a load of this. [00:06:14] He's a supporter of sanctions and military tools when necessary to support coercive diplomacy. If your diplomacy is coercive, it ain't diplomacy, okay? It ain't diplomacy. Apparently his past [00:06:31] assignment as chief of staff to the State Department's Iran Action Group will allow him to bring significant interagency experience critical to knitting together the many different Washington players and experts who play a role in the Iran account. That's a lot of words to basically [00:06:47] tell the American people that this guy is part of a group of failures who has never accomplished peace, has only tried to pressure the US into war. And that's the expertise that he's going to bring to the table when it comes to negotiating or pretending to negotiate a deal with Iran. [00:07:08] So unfortunately, the FTD has been expanding its influence in Washington, which it needs to do, obviously, in order to get away with things like spying on Americans. Max Blumenthal at the Gray Zone reports that in 2017, a top Israeli military intelligence official cited [00:07:28] FTD as a partner in a covert Israeli campaign to spy on Americans involved in Palestine solidarity activism. Under Trump, the outfit has dictated the administration's Iran policy to the point [00:07:44] that the White House plagiarized its justification for attacking Iran from a document posted on FDD's website. It's embarrassing. Additionally, federal lobbying disclosures show FDD Action [00:08:00] spent $150,000 lobbying the US government in just the first quarter of 2025 on issues including Iran sanctions relief, US arms sales to Israel, of course, they need their precious free weapons, and the United States Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025. According to its website, FDD [00:08:19] Action offers lawmakers and officials direct support including legislative drafting assistance, private briefings, policy analysis and training all at no cost. They'll write our foreign policy for free y'all. Okay, I guess we should be celebrating that. The FTD specifically has been called [00:08:38] out by Iranian officials. They know who he is. They have accused the FTD of designing and executing, being the design and executing arm of the US administration on Iran policy, and [00:08:54] they're right about that. The FDD CEO, Mark Dubowitz, didn't even deny it. In fact, he responded to the Iranians claim by saying guilty as charged. Stewart was chosen specifically [00:09:09] for this role uh by Jared Kushner, essentially to advise Witkoff. So now instead of two Israeli assets, possible peace with Iran will have three Israeli assets sabotaging a possible peace deal with Iran. So look, next time Trump claims we're so close to a peace deal, I just [00:09:30] want everyone to understand why people who have been paying close attention to Trump's foreign policy would never believe him. uh