Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner (Born 10 January 1981) is Donald Trump's son-in-law and one of the most consequential figures in US Middle East diplomacy across two administrations. A Harvard graduate and former head of Kushner Companies, he served as Senior Adviser to the President from 2017 to 2021, leading the criminal justice reform effort and brokering the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and four Arab states (the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco). After leaving government he founded Affinity Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm that received a $2 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

In Trump's second term Kushner returned as a special envoy working both the Iran nuclear file and the Ukraine peace track alongside Steve Witkoff. Iran initially rejected both men in March 2026, viewing Kushner as the architect of accords that deepened Israeli regional legitimacy while isolating Tehran. Washington declined to remove either envoy, adding Vice President Vance to the delegation instead. Kushner co-approved the Islamabad MOU in May 2026 alongside Vance and Witkoff: a 60-day Ceasefire framework under which Iran clears mines from the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear talks are deferred. On 21 June 2026, per Al Jazeera, Kushner attended the first face-to-face US-Iran talks since the MOU, held in Geneva, Switzerland, alongside VP Vance and Witkoff. The Geneva format is the first direct session since the failed Islamabad channel attempts of April.

Kushner's position as Trump's son-in-law gives him access no institutional appointment could replicate, but it also makes him structurally suspect to any party that views the Trump family's Gulf business ties as a conflict of interest. His involvement in the Islamabad MOU and the Geneva session suggests Iran has accepted the composite delegation as the operative format, even if it has never formally rescinded its original objection.