Mike Waltz is having an unusual experience as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a job that does not usually come with a honeymoon phase. Yet the former congressman and national security adviser took office in September and a mere two months later the Security Council gave the Trump administration a big win by passing a resolution affirming the president’s plan for postwar Gaza.
As a result, Waltz may be America’s first UN ambassador in some time to describe the atmosphere there, at least for now, as “pleasant.”
Waltz sees such support, he told me this week after wrapping up a weeklong trip to Israel and Jordan, as validation for the fact that “the president and his team are trying something very new and bold and innovative.”
Waltz visited the Keren Shalom crossing on the Egyptian border and the American civil-military coordination center in Kiryat Gat and sees Israel clearly holding up its end of the deal. Aid flow into Gaza has surged: The cease-fire plan called for Israel to allow 600 trucks of food and supplies in daily, and the day Waltz left had seen 900 aid trucks enter the enclave. “For the rest of the world that is saying the international community is not doing enough or that the Israeli government is getting in the way of basic lifesaving aid going in to the people that have suffered at the hands of Hamas, that’s just false,” Waltz says. “The data doesn’t back it up.”
There was almost a breakthrough on another front while Waltz was in Israel. Hamas recovered remains of what many hoped was the body of the last missing hostage, Ran Gvili, but it was a false alarm. Waltz did meet with Gvili’s parents and came away impressed with their son’s heroism and sacrifice. “The reason he was off duty that day is because he had a broken shoulder. And what did he do when he got the alert [that Hamas had invaded]? He threw his gear on his only good shoulder and ran towards the sounds of the guns, and over a dozen dead terrorists were found where he died.”
The search for Gvili’s body continues as all parties work toward further implementation of the Gaza plan, including, Waltz said, Egypt and Qatar. Waltz also mentioned that expanding the Abraham Accords remains an administration priority.
There is, of course, one actor in this drama that would love to play spoiler: Iran. During the 12-day war, the U.S. and Israel set back Iran’s weapons development on both the nuclear and conventional fronts. But Israeli officials have raised concerns about what appeared to be a recent Iranian missile exercise.
If Iran is attempting to get back on its feet and torpedo the region’s stability, could its Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon be preparing to shatter the calm in Israel’s north? Waltz said that, for now, Hezbollah’s real threat derives from its battle to stay alive within Lebanon. “Hezbollah has been knocked down, but it hasn’t been knocked out. Right now, what we’re seeing is a race from the Lebanese armed forces on the one hand to grow its capability and its presence, racing against Hezbollah working hard to rebuild. I think we have huge opportunities, a historic opportunity in Lebanon with President Aoun, with the prime minister, the fact that they just engaged for the first time in decades in direct talks with the Israelis, both military and civilian.”
Still, that requires keeping “maximum pressure on Iran, and the administration is determined to do that.” He points out that Iran has something of a currency crisis on its hands. Iran’s Tasnim news agency recently reported that the rial hit an all-time low against the dollar. That, Waltz said, is depleting Iranian currency reserves and making it harder for the regime to rebuild both its own arsenal and Hezbollah’s.
Therefore, strengthening the Lebanese government’s position against Hezbollah remains the priority up north: “We have to think about where we were a year ago when you had rockets flying from Lebanon, you had nearly 100,000 Israelis displaced from their homes, you had the horrific attack on the soccer field, the Assad government was in place and is now gone. The Houthis [were on the attack] and they’ve been relatively silent, Iran marching towards a nuke and now it no longer has that capability. We just have to keep this all in perspective. It’s very tenuous, but we’ve made huge progress.”
These achievements, Waltz said, are a testament to the Trump administration’s commitment to close coordination between the U.S and Israel. On his recent trip, he saw the same from the Israeli side. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog understand that “we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to get it right in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, and around the region.”
What’s the UN’s role in all this? Waltz says his team is always getting UN support where they can, but otherwise: “We are working hard to keep the UN out of the way.”
