TEHRAN — The Trump administration has added Nick Stewart, a lobbyist from the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), to the U.S. Iran negotiating team led by envoy Steve Witkoff. The appointment comes as peace talks remain stalled and a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports continues.

Stewart previously served in the State Department under Brian Hook, who expanded sanctions after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. His addition has raised concerns among analysts. "Hiring an FDD staffer strongly suggests that reaching a diplomatic deal is not Trump's objective," said Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Iran has reportedly submitted a new proposal to end the war within 30 days, but President Donald Trump has already cast doubt on it. "I can't imagine that it would be acceptable," he wrote on Truth Social, adding that Iran "has not yet paid a big enough price."

In a separate analysis, Parsi argued that Trump had already secured a favorable outcome from the fragile ceasefire, which disproportionately benefited Washington. "Trump secured a swift exit from a costly war while Iran forfeited its primary source of leverage—oil prices," Parsi wrote. But instead of consolidating that victory, Trump followed FDD's advice to impose a full blockade on the Persian Gulf.

The FDD sold the blockade as a "silver bullet" that would zero out Iran's oil revenues within days, exhaust its storage capacity, and force capitulation. Trump called the plan "genius" and said Iran would have to "cry uncle."

But the opposite has occurred. Satellite imagery shows Iran is still loading oil onto tankers. While the blockade has increased economic pressure, there is no sign of the promised collapse. Instead, global oil prices have risen above wartime levels. Exxon's CEO warned that gasoline prices will climb further, and Joe Kent, Trump's former counterterrorism director, cautioned that the blockade is triggering a global fertilizer shortage that could lead to food security crises and famines.

Parsi described the pursuit of "silver bullets" against Iran as a 47-year pathology in U.S. policy. Previous failed solutions included the threat of military force, the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, and the indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure. A Bloomberg analysis found that only 32% of damaged buildings were military targets; the vast majority were civilian.

"The desperately needed pressure release Trump secured through the ceasefire has been entirely undone by FDD's vaunted silver-bullet blockade," Parsi wrote. "This is merely the latest in a long line of delusional silver bullets that American presidents have chased instead of pursuing far less costly and far more effective diplomacy."

With an FDD insider now on the negotiating team and Trump dismissing Iran's peace proposal, the path to a diplomatic resolution appears increasingly narrow.