Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, said a deal over Ukraine’s raw earth minerals could be signed this week.
Summary
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, failed to specify any Russian concessions in a potential Ukraine peace deal despite detailing demands on Ukraine.
After claiming a "friendship" with Putin, Witkoff spoke vaguely about "territorial" and "economic" concessions from both sides. He also claimed a U.S.-Ukraine deal on raw earth minerals would be signed soon.
When confronted with Russian state TV footage suggesting Trump’s stance aligns with Putin’s, Witkoff insisted diplomacy requires communication.
His remarks fueled concerns over Trump’s approach to Russia and Ukraine.
I remain unimpressed by CNN reporters because he has not asked the most important question: What will guarantee Russia's adherence to any kind of peace deal?
It's boring to repost it the Nth time but the 1994 Budapest Memorandum was quite clear about these matters:
Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders
Refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the signatories...
Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest...
Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".
Yet, putin kicked nearly every single point in the memorandum the moment he felt ready. Why would the same leader act differently in the future?
It's eerily similar in my view to the Abraham accords. Trump negotiated bypassing Palestinians and then we got Oct 7 and the war that spiraled from it. These "deals" are as flimsy as a CyberTruck, but it's also very trumpy. He gets to act like a peacemaker and then his successor will deal with the consequent shit. Same thing happened in Afghanistan.
*edit: also, if someone wants to be "fair" (i'd rather say naive) one can consider the official Russian narrative, but again that narrative explicitly goes against the Budapest Memorandum, meaning, they are very open about not respecting treaties they sign.
While I understand your perspective, the Abraham accords are different because they are deals between Israel and other countries, without including Palestine. Here the deal would be between the main protagonists Ukraine and Russia.
The security guarantees will likely need to be provided by European countries, although Russia seems against having troops from any NATO member country in Ukraine.
they are deals between Israel and other countries, without including Palestine. Here the deal would be between the main protagonists Ukraine and Russia.
That's exactly my point. The present style of negotiations makes the impression like this was a deal between Russia and USA.
Well Palestinians were involved with negotiating the Oslo accords, and that gave rise to Hamas anyway. Palestine is a fascist society and as you say there isn't much point in having an agreement with fascists unless there's some kind of military force to ensure they follow it. At this point Palestine is just a proxy in Iran's "Axis of Resistance" and it doesn't seem like Iranians much care how many Arabs die so long as it hurts their enemies. It makes sense for Arab countries to work together with Israel against their common adversary of Iran. Trying to keep normalized relations between Iran's adversaries as some kind of motivator in a vain hope that Iran's proxies will suddenly make a peace agreement separate from the country that's funding them is a little naive.
With Ukraine it's the opposite way. It's Russia that's the fascist society and yeah, there needs to be military guarantees that they won't do as Hamas does and just build up their forces and strike when it suits them while ignoring any agreement made.
The point I was making is that you can't make lasting peace through flimsy one-sided negotiations, but the trump brand of peacemaking is about quick "results" with single-presidential-term durability that solves very little on the long run, just pushes the problems to the next presidential term (which may be his own this time...).
Your comparison of Hamas and Russia doesn't only lack nuance but blatantly ignores crucial geopolitical differences in worldwide influence, military might, and general motivations, which are all totally beside the point of the present discussion.
Is that a concession? I don't think he actually wants to be president anymore.
Don't get me wrong, it's the correct "deal" to make - it's the most overt declaration he can make to those who claim he wants to be dictator for life - I just think it's probably a win/win for him.
It's absolutely a concession, and a very big one too. It's a concession to the Trump allegations that Zelenskyy is a dictator. And this bullshit argument was given as one of the reasons he wasn't invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia.
I don’t think he actually wants to be president anymore.
Doesn't change the fact that it's a very big concession.
It might be the correct deal, but it worries me. I can only imagine the people saying he wants to be a dictator are those that want a Putin style election to install another puppet. I know they have to have elections at some point - it's just a worry!
Even the EU vasals have nothing to say.
Blindly follow the leader, jump when they say. Even let them blow up their cheap gasline and ruin their economy.
Not one peep.
And now they are surprised they get no respect? LOL.
What does this guy think he has of weight?
His new US master will decide for him, that's what happen when you allow your country to be used as a proxy.
As if there weren't enough examples of US 'friends' thrown under the bus.
I've seen a LOT of russian/trump, "it's a mystery if they're in bed together" type posts for the past few days. It made me pull out the bookmarks from the first term. Here is some ammo if anyone needs it (other stuff is mixed in). Remember, leave the link and depart. If you're explaining, you're losing.
I think it's a very fair deal.
They are not pushing for the entire Ukraine.
Ukrainian treatment is very fair - they get full citizenship with pensions and medical etc.
Lol. At least you have a sense of humor! This must be a joke after all. Russia invades, is not really winning, and their opponent's "great deal" is they get to still exist?
What are they talking about?!? Russia is obviously conceding half of Ukraine for the next 3 to 5 years. It is absolutely gracious of them to allow the people in Ukraine to borrow that territory until Russia feels like actually ruling it again!
Incredible that Trump remains so mad that Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize that he’s willing to literally just order an ally to give up so he can claim he made the peace and demand his prize. He really was just entirely broken by a black man being president.
The entire right wing of the country absolutely went off the deep end when a black man was elected president. Make no doubt about it, the Republican party was always awful and on the way to getting worse, but Obama's election was the the catalyst that drove mainstream conservatives into conspiracy theories and ultranationalistic race identity politics.
Or it really was the Mayan calendar ending. Or not enough dicks out for Harambe.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, said a deal over Ukraine’s raw earth minerals could be signed this week.
The deal will be signed with Russia. Trump will want carve up Ukraine between the US and Russia.
Because Russia did not want peace. "Why are Russia interested in a peace deal now then?", you might ask. Because Trump is not going to negotiate them a peace "deal". He is going to give them victory.
The peace deal proposed by Trump is "Ukraine just take the fattest L known to any country in the last 100 years and be ok with it, and thanks for the rare earth minerals". While the US didn't deliver much support compared to EU.
Wtf is the point of your military if it's not for peace keeping?
The US donated the most money by a wide margin lol we should fuel the war indefinitely and not opt for peace between both parties?
Granted, Trump could have said it in a more neutral manner, I don't agree with what he said about Zelenskyy, he still has the right idea to try to offer peace rather than let it stew into a nuclear war.
You can root for Ukraine to decimate Russia all you want, but war produces dead bodies of all ages and I'm sure you've never seen that carnage before.
Ignant? Have you ever been in war? I'd rather see peace in that region. I know you hate Putin mostly because you associate him with Trump, that's "ignant" lol