US warns Iran over Houthi ties ahead of new nuclear talks

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is facing growing criticism from current and former officials over his handling of sensitive negotiations with Iran and Russia, The New York Post reported in an exclusive on Wednesday.

Witkoff, a real estate investor with no formal diplomatic background, has taken part in high-level meetings with Russian officials alone and at times relied on Kremlin translators — breaking with long-standing US protocol, sources told the Post.

“Nice guy, but a bumbling f–king idiot,” one former Trump official told the paper. “He should not be doing this alone.”

Witkoff has also drawn fire for his efforts in Middle East diplomacy. A tentative cease-fire deal he believed he had secured with Hamas in March quickly collapsed after the group rejected his terms and offered to release fewer hostages. “Maybe that’s just me getting duped,” Witkoff later told Fox News Sunday.

On Iran, Witkoff floated a proposal allowing Tehran to continue low-level uranium enrichment — a suggestion he walked back after backlash from hawks in Washington. Critics say his approach resembles the 2015 Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump abandoned in his first term.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said on X that Witkoff’s talks with Tehran were a “waste of oxygen,” accusing the envoy of repeating mistakes of past administrations.

Analysts warned that Iran is using the talks as cover to avoid military action from Israel. “Witkoff acts as a mailman for Putin,” former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote on social media.

Despite growing concerns, the White House defended Witkoff’s record. “Steve Witkoff has done incredible work securing the release of Americans detained abroad,” deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Post. “Like President Trump, he is focused on stopping the killing and advancing peace through strength.”

Pete Hegseth wrote on X: "Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing. You know very well what the US Military is capable of — and you were warned."

"You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing."

Hegseth also reposted a message from Donald Trump from March in which the US president said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis.

Iran maintains that it does not direct the Houthi actions in the Red Sea region. However, Yemen’s Houthis began targeting international commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Muslim nations to blockade Israeli trade in November 2023.

In March, Khamenei responded to the same threats of retaliation for Houthi actions from US President Donald Trump. "The Yemeni nation has its own motivation and the resistance groups in the region have their own motivations. Iran doesn't need proxies," Khamenei said.

The blockade began with the aim of forcing Israel into a ceasefire but has since led to 174 attacks on the US Navy and 145 attacks on global shipping, according to the US State Department.

The US leads a coalition of over 20 nations against Houthi attacks on shipping, spearheading direct strikes on the group's infrastructure in Yemen, sometimes with British forces.

Since escalating strikes against the Houthis in March, the US has targeted over 1,000 sites. To bolster its presence in the Middle East, the US military has recently increased its assets, including the deployment of six B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a location experts consider strategically advantageous for operations in the region.

Additionally, the US currently maintainstwo aircraft carriers in the Middle East and has redeployed air defense systems from Asia to the area.

The US defense chief's warning comes amid US-Iran nuclear talks, the fourth round of which is due to take place this weekend.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a senior Iranian security official on Wednesday that Beijing supports Tehran’s diplomatic efforts on its nuclear programme, days before US-Iran talks are set to resume.

“China values Iran's commitment not to develop nuclear weapons” and “appreciates Iran's diplomatic efforts,” Wang told Ali Shamkhani, political advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a meeting in Brazil, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout released Thursday.

Wang said China was “pleased to see ongoing dialogue” between Iran and other parties and supports “necessary cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Talks between Iranian and US negotiators are expected to reconvene in Rome on Saturday.

Wang previously worked with Shamkhani on the 2023 China-brokered deal that restored diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

A deadly explosion at Iran’s Shahid Rajaei port may be linked to a shipment of ammonium perchlorate, a chemical used in missile fuel, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The blast, which killed at least 70 people and injured more than 1,000, struck near the terminal of Sina Port and Marine Services, part of Bonyad Mostazafan, a foundation overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and sanctioned by the US for supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Iranian officials have not confirmed the cause, but AP said local reports point to a mysterious cargo and noted the port had recently received chemical components used in ballistic missile fuel. A reddish cloud seen before the blast resembles those from previous explosions involving ammonium perchlorate or ammonium nitrate.

“The cloud likely was nitrogen dioxide, which can be produced when burning ammonium perchlorate or ammonium nitrate,” said Andrea Sella, chemistry professor at University College London. “The reports about the missile fuel shipment suggest it was ammonium perchlorate.”

Surveillance footage showed the reddish cloud seconds before the explosion, similar to the 2020 Beirut port blast and the 1988 PEPCON disaster in Nevada.

Sina’s CEO Saeed Jafari blamed the incident on “a false statement about the dangerous goods and delivering it without documents and tags.” Authorities have restricted access to the site.

"The (JCPOA) was fundamentally flawed because the sanctions sunset, and yet the mandate as to how you're supposed to conduct yourself - not enriching, not weaponizing - that did not sunset," US envoy Steve Witkoff told the Cats and Cosby radio show referring to a 2015 nuclear deal from which President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

"So you and I both know, in business, one-way options don't make sense. They're not fair, and that was a one-way option for the Iranians, and it's got to be rectified," Witkoff told interviewers John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.