Witkoff Says Trump 'Curious' Why Iran Hasn't Capitulated to Demands Amid Massive U.S. Military Presence
Ben Samuels
February 22 2026
U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff said U.S. President Donald Trump is "curious" as to why the Iranian government has not yielded to U.S. demands in talks, in light of the mass mobilization of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
"I don't want to use the word 'frustrated,' because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he's curious as to why they haven't… I don't want to use the word 'capitulated,' but why haven't they capitulated?" Witkoff said on Fox News. "Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven't they come to us and said, 'We profess we don't want a weapon, so here's what we're prepared to do'? And yet it's sort of hard to get them to that place."
Sources told Reuters that a military escalation is more likely than a diplomatic negotiation, with Washington building up one of its biggest military deployments in the region since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea this month. Credit: Hannah Tross/U.S. Navy/AFP
Some regional officials say Tehran is dangerously miscalculating by holding out for concessions, with U.S. President Donald Trump boxed in by his own military buildup – unable to scale it back without losing face if there is no firm commitment from Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.