Fmr WH Officials to Newsmax: Global Pressure Forcing Iran Toward Negotiations

A widening diplomatic push led by Pakistan, China, and key U.S. allies is increasing pressure on Iran to negotiate as continued U.S. and Israeli strikes, battlefield losses, and growing economic strain weaken Tehran's position, according to former Trump and Obama administration officials who spoke to Newsmax on Tuesday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Tuesday that his country stood ready to "facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks" to end the war, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to move toward negotiations.

At the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to head to France for a Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting near Versailles focused in part on the Iran crisis.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates, who worked in the first Trump administration, said on "Bianca Across the Nation" that the central issue was not the identity of any mediator but whether Iran was prepared to face its deteriorating position.

"It's not so much whether it's the Pakistanis, the Turks, the Egyptians, whoever doing the mediating. It's what kind of attitude the Iranians have," she said.

Coates said the military balance was shifting against Tehran, adding, "They have continued to shoot missiles at much reduced levels and drones at Israel and at their neighboring Arab countries in the region. But more importantly, the United States and Israel have ramped up strikes on Iran."

"We're getting stronger while they're getting weaker. And so, hopefully, they recognize that reality on the battlefield."

Her comments came as the war's tempo remained high Tuesday, with Iranian missiles and drones targeting Israel and Gulf Arab states, Tehran maintaining pressure around the Strait of Hormuz, and President Donald Trump saying the United States was in talks with Iran even as Tehran publicly denied negotiations were underway.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joel Rubin, who worked under former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama in various agencies, said China's stake in Gulf energy supplies could make Beijing a meaningful source of leverage on Tehran.

"China is highly dependent upon Iranian oil but more so on Saudi oil and Kuwaiti oil," Rubin said. "And if it escalates in the Gulf, China will be directly harmed."

Rubin credited the Trump administration's broader pressure campaign, saying, "For them to get in talking to Iran, pushing Iran, that's crucial to ensure that Iran does not do the worst of the actions that it could in the Strait of Hormuz."

He added, "All this global pressure, it's not from nowhere. It's being organized and orchestrated."

"And the administration should be given credit for that. And it needs to keep pressuring to make the Iranians serious."

Rubin also argued Europe must do more as Rubio heads to France, saying political support alone was insufficient and that "they need to step it up" by using their influence in Tehran, particularly because European powers were parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The nuclear issue remains central to any negotiation, with Coates arguing that removing Iran's highly enriched uranium is critical.

International inspectors have long warned about the scale of Tehran's program: Before the June 2025 attacks on Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated Iran had roughly 972 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60%.

The IAEA later said it had lost continuity of knowledge about the whereabouts of Iran's stockpile after the conflict and suspension of cooperation.

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