Trump's Anti-Israel Officials Sabotaging His Efforts to Disarm Iran
by Con Coughlin • April 18, 2025 at 5:00 am
The appointment, however, of several officials to key national security positions in the Trump administration, who vehemently oppose direct military action against Iran, has raised concerns that the White House might be backing away from its commitment to eliminate the threat Iran poses to global security.
In particular, these concerns relate to the recent appointments to the Pentagon of influential figures such as John Byers for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (South and South-East Asia), and Michael DiMino, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism official, for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Middle East).
Similarly, concerns have arisen that DiMino will be able to use his position as the Pentagon's new chief Middle East policy adviser to advance an anti-Israel stance while questioning the Trump administration's confrontational stance towards Iran.
As with Byers, DiMino was previously linked to the libertarian Koch brothers, having held tenure as a fellow at the Washington think tank Defense Priorities, which is funded by the Koch team.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently downgraded Trump's professed demands by asking Iran just to lower uranium enrichment -- a statement he quickly had to walk back. Iran has already stated that it could move its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to "safe and undisclosed locations," presumably for use at a later time. Russia, in an apparent burst of generosity, has offered to host the enriched uranium. How kind of them!
While Trump keeps offering perfect negotiating parameters, such as, "All hostages must be released by Saturday or all hell will break out," or, "Iran issue is easy to solve, they cannot obtain nuclear weapons," his statements always seem to be instantly undermined.
Fears that the Trump administration is back-tracking on its declared policy of seeking to dismantle Iran's nuclear programme have deepened following the appointment of several officials to key national security positions who are reportedly opposed to launching military action against Tehran.
Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington earlier this month, US President Donald Trump was explicit about his determination to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it'll be a very bad day for Iran," Trump told reporters after meeting with Netanyahu.
Trump even suggested that Israel could be the "leader" for any future military action against Iran if the ayatollahs refused to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
