As Washington and Tehran edge toward an uncertain pause in hostilities, Turkey has quietly emerged as a key diplomatic player — with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holding undisclosed talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to analyst Murat Yetkin writing for YetkinReport.
President Donald Trump announced on March 23 a five-day delay to planned strikes against Iran — just one day after mocking the Pope's ceasefire appeal and vowing he would not stop "while winning." Trump claimed two days of talks with Iran were underway, implying Tehran was ready to capitulate. Iran denied it.
Competing Scenarios
Yetkin outlines several competing explanations for Trump's sudden reversal. Gulf Arab states — led by Saudi Arabia — may have pressed Washington to pause, fearing catastrophic regional blowback. Iran had already warned Gulf nations to stockpile water and prepare backup generators, signaling it would target civilian infrastructure including desalination and power plants in any exchange. The US Defense Department, meanwhile, was said to need more time to prepare for a potential ground operation — one increasingly focused not on toppling the Tehran regime, but on seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz and Kharg Island, as YetkinReport reports.
Another scenario, according to Yetkin, is that talks were genuinely progressing — with Trump even suggesting Iran might hand over all its enriched uranium to the United States. The main obstacle, sources suggest, is Israel, which has little interest in ending the war on negotiated terms.
Fidan's Unnamed Meeting
Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan attended a regional meeting in Riyadh on March 18, where Gulf states again made clear their deep anxiety over a potential US strike on Iran. He subsequently visited Qatar and the UAE before returning to Ankara, after which he held a rapid series of calls with counterparts from Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, Germany, Norway, Jordan, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry disclosed all of those contacts — except one. The unnamed "US official" Fidan met the same day as Kallas was, according to Yetkin, Steve Witkoff, Trump's Special Envoy for the Middle East. The Fidan-Witkoff meeting reportedly included discussion of the critical problem of identifying a legitimate Iranian interlocutor for negotiations.
No One to Talk To in Tehran
Yetkin, citing diplomatic sources, writes that the immediate goal is not a peace deal or even a permanent ceasefire — but a temporary halt to create space for diplomacy. The deeper obstacle is that Iran has no clear negotiating partner left standing. The surviving leadership — President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — may lack the authority of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose compliance with any deal is far from guaranteed. Iran also fears that any interlocutor it publicly names could be targeted for assassination — not necessarily by the US, but by Israel.
Yetkin notes that wealthy Gulf monarchies are rediscovering, for the first time since the 1973 oil crisis, that they have been bankrolling American wars at their own expense. Chinese President Xi Jinping's pointed remark — "You don't need the US; the US needs you" — has reportedly resonated in Gulf capitals. Russia and China are not at the negotiating table, but are providing covert support to Iran including intelligence sharing. China has also deployed one of its most advanced intelligence-gathering vessels off the Strait of Hormuz, according to YetkinReport.
Yetkin's provisional conclusion is that the Trump administration has recognized the mounting cost of its unconditional support for Israel and is now seeking an exit it can sell to its own voters as a victory. The biggest obstacle to that exit, he argues, is not Iran — but the Israeli lobby in Washington.
In this context, Yetkin writes, Turkey's continued engagement in ceasefire and peace efforts is "particularly important and necessary."