Sunday, 16 February 2025

Who is going to Saudi Arabia for peace talks?

Talk about confusion. There is going to be a big peace-talk meeting in Saudi Arabia but do the Saudis know how many chairs and glasses of water to provide? We know the US delegation, Marco Rubio, secretary of state, Mike Waltz, national security adviswr, John Ratcliffe, CIA director, and Steve Witkoff, billionaire and Trump's special envoy for the Middle East. Witkoff is the most interesting Trump representative. He has a reputation for being a brutal, no-nonsense negotiator. He says it how it is and how he thinks and has no time for chit-chat. The Russians will get to know very quickly they are dealing with a tough nut to crack, except he doesn't crack. The rest of the Trump team will be less in the Russians' face but the combination could be quite effective. Trump said there will be a Ukrainian delegation but Kyiv says they haven't been formally invited. How can this be? As for the Europeans, they won't be represented which is why Macron has called a summit in Paris to discuss how the hell Europe, a big supporter of Ukraine, is going to play a meaningful role. But they won't be going to Saudi Arabia. Trump doesn't want them. Putin has achieved one of the major things he always wanted, division and confusion in the western alliance. But this is the way Trumps wants it. He doesn't want a delegation of Europeans getting in the way of his instant blueprint for Ukraine's future. At present the Saudi meeting looks like Trump team versus Putin team with Zelensky not sure whether he has been invited or not.

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