Iranian officials are reportedly leaving Steve Witkoff’s messages on “read” as the hapless envoy attempts to restart negotiations he abandoned for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East. Witkoff has sent messages to officials in Tehran, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, urging them to come to the table for peace negotiations, two Iranian officials told Drop Site News. The Trump administration has even reached out through third party countries. But Iran hasn’t replied. “The message here is clear: Iran has once again closed the window for any direct negotiations,” a senior Iran official told Drop Site, saying the decision was made by the country’s top authorities. “The authority to declare a ceasefire rests solely with the country’s Supreme Leader. It’s not something the foreign minister, or any other official or organization in Iran, would send messages about to a foreign party,” the official said. The White House responded to the report by claiming that Drop Site was “clearly carrying water for the Iranian terrorist regime,” and that the report was “pure fiction” and “should be discarded immediately.”The repeated requests to talk indicate that the Trump administration may have underestimated Iran’s resolve, as the U.S. president insists that the war is already won. Meanwhile, Trump claimed Monday that the United States didn’t need help from anyone after his government unsuccessfully urged reluctant allies in Europe to sail for the Strait of Hormuz. Witkoff and Jared Kushner were originally tasked with negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Tehran. But several nuclear experts have raised questions about the disastrous duo’s technical understanding of uranium enrichment after they presented an assessment of Iran’s Research Reactor that made no sense.Witkoff and Kushner chose not to have nuclear technical experts present during negotiations in Geneva, and the United States then chose to skip out on technical talks. It’s not so much that Witkoff and Kushner are idiots, but that their incompetence has literally been weaponized. In the end, Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran hinged on Witkoff and Kushner’s analysis of Iran’s nuclear capabilities—and they told him to strike.