Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner visited The Western Wall in Jerusalem today.

Kushner positions himself as a religious Jew and before marrying him, Trump's daughter adopted Judaism.

#whitkoff #kushner #judaism #westernwall

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🕊 Trump’s Gaza Truce on Thin Ice

The Trump peace deal in Gaza is already cracking under fire. Over the weekend, Hamas militants killed two Israeli soldiers, Israel hit back with airstrikes, and yet the White House insists the cease-fire is “still in place.” It’s diplomatic optimism bordering on denial.
Trump’s envoys — Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — landed in Israel on Monday, trying to hold together a deal everyone knows is falling apart. Vice President JD Vance is due next, and 200 U.S. troops are now setting up what’s being called a “civil-military coordination center” — Washington’s way of saying

“we’ll watch while everyone keeps shooting.”

💣 Cease-Fire or Just a Pause Button?
The truce, signed barely ten days ago, was meant to trade hostages for prisoners and lead to a gradual Israeli pullout. But disarming Hamas, rebuilding Gaza, and deciding who actually runs it remain open questions — the kind that usually end with more explosions.
Hamas claims rogue fighters launched the weekend attacks. Israel’s far-right coalition doesn’t believe it. Trump says, “it’ll be handled properly,” as if this were a zoning dispute, not an armed standoff with drones and tunnels.

⚖️ Playing Peacemaker, American-Style
The administration’s push to keep the deal alive shows just how invested Trump is in his “President of Peace” brand. But with Israeli ministers screaming for a renewed offensive and Hamas insisting it’s lost control of parts of Rafah, the truce feels like one errant rocket away from burial.
Israel resumed the cease-fire late Sunday, aid convoys rolled again, and one more hostage body was returned. It’s progress — in the same way that a house fire “stops spreading” when the roof’s already gone.

#Gaza #Israel #Trump #CeaseFire #Hamas #MiddleEast #Witkoff #Kushner #JDVance

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💣 The Warehouse of Peace: Trump’s Command Center Takes Shape in Israel

In a vast warehouse on the outskirts of Kiryat Gat, President Trump’s Gaza peace deal now has a headquarters — equal parts logistics hub and propaganda stage. Two hundred U.S. troops, alongside Israeli officers and allied partners, have converted the space into a Civil Military Coordination Center meant to enforce the cease fire, control humanitarian aid, and keep Gaza’s fragile calm from collapsing under political rivalry.

“There is no Plan B,”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.

“This is the best plan — the only plan.”

🏗 A Warehouse for War and Peace
The site feels like a mashup of operations base and campaign rally: whiteboards map out Trump’s 20 point Gaza plan, artificial turf covers the floor, and a glowing wall reads, “A new and beautiful day is rising.” Uniformed teams monitor live feeds from Gaza — drone footage, satellite images, and social media reports — while a rotation of envoys, from JD Vance to Jared Kushner, makes inspection visits.

On the big screens, one headline flashes:

“U.S. backs Israel’s veto of Turkish troops for international stabilization force.”

The message is unmistakable: Jerusalem stays boss, and Washington provides the muscle.

🛰 Trump’s Eyes and Ears in the Middle East
The U.S. says the new center is a “symbol of commitment.” For Israel, it’s a reminder that the White House is now watching everything — from cease fire breaches to the amount of flour entering Rafah. The coordination hub includes officers from Germany, France, Greece, Australia, and Canada, spotlighting the new “coalition of accountability.”

Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank leads the operation, with CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper promising it would be fully functional in under three weeks — a promise kept to the letter. Rubio praised the effort as “proof we can build peace like we build bases.”

🪙 Peace—With a User Manual
The Gaza peace plan, Trump’s signature foreign policy gamble, demands disarmament, reconstruction, and the rise of a Palestinian technocrat government under international supervision. It’s peace by command line — a process organized like a corporation, branded like a campaign, and monitored like a military exercise.

For now, the warehouse hums like a startup of empire — soldiers reading hashtags, diplomats writing scripts, and a giant banner of their commander in chief reminding them:

“The rebuilding begins.”

#Trump #Gaza #Rubio #CENTCOM #Israel #peaceplan #Kushner #Vance #MiddleEast #geopolitics

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"Productive" Florida Talks: U.S. Pitches Land Swaps and Elections—Then Flies to Moscow for Putin's Verdict

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators wrapped Sunday talks in Florida calling them "productive," but the real action starts Monday when Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner fly to Moscow for further discussions with Putin. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff, and Kushner met with Ukraine's new chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, for over four hours at Witkoff's Shell Bay golf club. On the table: possible timetables for new Ukrainian elections, land swaps between Russia and Ukraine, and security guarantees. Rubio called the negotiations "delicate, complicated" with "a lot of moving parts"—translation: nothing's settled, and Moscow holds the cards.

Land Swaps, Elections, and Constitutional Headaches
The discussions included whether Russia and Ukraine could swap territory—a legally fraught proposition given that both constitutions prohibit ceding land without legal changes. In Ukraine, any border change requires a nationwide referendum, and Ukraine's wartime powers currently freeze presidential and parliamentary elections. Holding elections now would open Kyiv to Russian interference campaigns and destabilize Zelensky, who's already reeling from the corruption scandal that forced Andriy Yermak—his top aide and former negotiator—to resign. Umerov replaced Yermak mid-crisis and spent Sunday insisting

"the U.S. is hearing us, supporting us, walking beside us."

The 28-Point Plan That Won't Die
Sunday's talks capped a month of whirlwind diplomacy that began when Kushner and Witkoff met with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's handpicked negotiator, in Florida. The three edited the initial 28-point peace proposal over multiple days at Witkoff's Miami Beach waterfront home. When Umerov reviewed the plan in October, he bluntly told them it favored Russia. The leaked version alarmed Ukraine and Europe for offering concessions like capping Ukraine's military but not Russia's, and banning Ukraine from NATO forever.

Putin's Precondition: Ukraine Withdraws, or We Keep Fighting
Putin said last week he's ready for "serious" discussions but reiterated his demand: Ukraine must withdraw troops from all of Donetsk and Luhansk—including areas Russia doesn't control.

"When Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, then the fighting will stop,"

Putin said.

"If they don't, then we'll achieve that through military means."

Ukraine has refused, arguing withdrawal leaves it vulnerable to further attacks. Hours before Sunday's talks, Russia bombarded Ukraine with a nearly 10-hour air assault involving hundreds of missiles and drones targeting civilians and energy infrastructure. Rubio says the goal is to "help Ukraine be safe forever." Putin's actions suggest otherwise.

#ukraine #russia #trump #kushner #witkoff #rubio #putin #peacetalks #landswaps #zelensky

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🇷🇺🇫🇷 Witkoff in Moscow, Zelensky in Paris: A Struggle for Daddy


Witkoff is expected to present Putin with a U.S.-backed peace proposal that was revised by American officials after recent negotiations with Ukrainian diplomats.

The initial version of the plan that emerged last month was seen by Ukraine and its European allies as echoing the maximalist demands Russia has made since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Witkoff’s visit to Moscow, his sixth since January, is to take place two days after American and Ukrainian delegations met in Miami to discuss the details of the potential peace plan, parts of which Ukraine has sought to soften. Both sides called those talks constructive but said more work was needed, without detailing the unresolved issues.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told journalists on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner would participate in the talks for the American side, noting that the negotiations would go on “as long as necessary.”

The meeting was expected to take place early evening Tuesday, Moscow time. Kushner does not have a formal role in the Trump administration but played a role in brokering the cease-fire in Gaza.

The White House has strongly pressured Ukraine to agree to a peace plan, even as Russia has signaled initial resistance to it.

Russia insists that to halt the war, Ukraine must cede its remaining territory in the Donbas region, drop its aspirations to join NATO and secure the status of the Russian language, culture and the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, thus allowing Moscow to have permanent sway over the country’s politics.

“We are still receiving proposals about ceasing hostilities there, there and there,” Putin told journalists. “When the Ukrainian troops leave the territories they occupy, then the hostilities will cease,” he said. “If they do not leave, we will achieve it militarily.”

According to a video posted to state media, Putin grew visibly angry and emotional after a commander reported that Ukrainian soldiers were dying by the hundreds, their bodies littering the tree lines.

“This is a tragedy — a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, connected to the criminal policies of the thieving junta that seized power in Kyiv,” Putin said on the video, as he shuffled papers aggressively on a desk.

He was referring to the 2014 uprising in Ukraine that ushered in a pro-Western government. Putin seized Crimea and started a war in Ukraine’s east in response.

Ilya Grashchenkov, a political analyst in Moscow, said expectations were low for a breakthrough from Witkoff’s visit, but the meeting was still significant.

“The main expectations likely boil down to maintaining a high-level communication channel during this crisis period,” he said. “This in itself is considered important for avoiding dangerous escalation.”

Grashchenkov said that with Russian growth approaching zero and the budgetary deficit widening because of soaring military expenditures, economic strain might compel the Kremlin to agree to certain compromises in the future.

But, so far, Russia’s government has managed to paper over the economic cracks, he said.

Putin had “no doubt that as Ukraine loses more territory, the number of those in the West who call for a cessation of hostilities will grow.”

In November, Russian forces almost doubled the battlefield gains they made in September, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group that uses geolocated combat footage and tips from Ukrainian Army sources to monitor battlefield developments.

While still relatively small, the Russian advances highlighted the increasing strain on Ukraine’s military.

#kushner #witkoff #moscow #zelensky #putin

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Trump's Ukraine Peace Formula: Business First, Borders Later

Three men hunched over a laptop at a Miami Beach waterfront estate last month, ostensibly drafting a peace plan for Ukraine. But Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Kirill Dmitriev — Putin's handpicked negotiator and head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund — were charting something far more ambitious: bringing Russia's $2 trillion economy back into the global fold, with American companies first in line for the spoils.

This is Trump's real Ukraine strategy. It's a plan built on business deals, not security guarantees. And Europe is furious.

The Pitch
Dmitriev, a Goldman Sachs alumnus, has spent months selling the White House on a vision: U.S. and Russian companies jointly exploiting Arctic mineral wealth, reviving gas pipelines, even pursuing a Mars mission with SpaceX. The Kremlin would tap roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets for U.S.-Russian investment projects and American-led Ukrainian reconstruction.

For Trump, Witkoff, and Kushner — whose Affinity Partners fund drew billions from Arab monarchies — this is the Art of the Deal applied to geopolitics. "Russia has so many vast resources, vast expanses of land," Witkoff told the Journal.

"If we do all that, and everybody's prospering, that's going to naturally be a bulwark against future conflicts."

The 28-Point Plan
When a version of the plan leaked earlier this month, European and Ukrainian leaders recoiled. It reflected mostly Russian demands: Ukraine withdraws from remaining Donetsk territory, caps its military size at 600,000 troops (down from 880,000), forfeits NATO membership. In exchange, vague security guarantees and promises of economic reconstruction.

Crucially, the U.S. would control $100 billion in frozen Russian assets, invest it in Ukraine reconstruction, and pocket 50% of the profits. Europe, which holds most of those assets and currently supplies nearly all military aid to Ukraine, would contribute another $100 billion — but gain nothing from the Russian funds. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk summarized: "We know this is not about peace. It's about business."

Key Players
American investors are already jockeying:
• Exxon Mobil met with Russia's Rosneft to discuss returning to the massive Sakhalin gas project
• Gentry Beach, a Trump Jr. college friend, is negotiating a stake in a Russian Arctic gas project pending sanctions relief
• Stephen Lynch, a Trump donor, paid $600,000 to a Trump Jr.-linked lobbyist seeking Treasury approval to buy the sabotaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline

Sanctioned Russian billionaires close to Putin — Gennady Timchenko, Yuri Kovalchuk, the Rotenberg brothers — have sent representatives to quietly meet American companies exploring rare-earth mining and energy deals.

The Diplomatic Freeze-Out
Witkoff has worked outside traditional channels. The CIA, which normally handles prisoner swaps, wasn't fully briefed on his proposed August exchange with Russia. Career Treasury officials overseeing sanctions have learned details of his Moscow meetings from British counterparts. Trump's official Ukraine envoy, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, was frozen out and announced his departure last week.

European intelligence agencies are alarmed. After the botched August Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, one European agency distributed a hard-copy report in manila envelopes detailing commercial plans the administration had pursued with Russia — including Arctic rare-earth mining.

The Open Question
Will Putin actually end the war in exchange for business ties? Or is this a ploy to pacify Washington while grinding toward victory? Ukrainian officials remain skeptical. When Witkoff encouraged them to ask Trump for a 10-year tariff exemption instead of Tomahawk missiles, it crystallized their concern: America sees Ukraine as a business opportunity, not a security commitment.

#Trump #Ukraine #Russia #Witkoff #Kushner #PeacePlan #Business #Arctic #Sanctions #Europe #Putin

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“I can tell you that Witkoff and Kushner had a pretty good meeting with Putin.” 🌍✈️

US President Trump said he was pleased with his delegation's meeting with Putin and soon noted that, according to Witkoff and Kushner, the Russian president wants to end the war and return to a more normal life. 👍😌

#witkoff #kushner #trump #putin

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🎭 The Peace Shuttle: Miami, Moscow, and the Art of Going Nowhere Fast

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's chief negotiator, landed in Miami today to meet Witkoff and Kushner fresh off their five-hour Kremlin marathon that produced exactly nothing. Trump called the Moscow talks "reasonably good" and added, "it does take two to tango"—which is diplomatic code for Putin didn't budge.

The choreography here is remarkable. Witkoff and Kushner promised Putin they "wouldn't go to Kyiv" after Moscow—so instead, Ukraine's delegation flies to them. Kremlin aide Ushakov made sure to announce that publicly, just to remind everyone who's dictating the dance steps. Meanwhile, Zelensky says

"Ukraine was heard, and Ukraine was listened to"

in Geneva and Florida. Heard, yes. Listened to? The 28-point plan still demands Ukraine cap its military, surrender territory, and abandon NATO forever.

The Europeans are scrambling too. NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels—without Secretary of State Rubio, notably—while Ukrainian negotiators briefed European national security advisers on what exactly happened in Moscow. European leaders were "blindsided" by Trump's original plan and remain deeply skeptical.

Here's the setup: Ukraine negotiates with American envoys who have no power to make Russia do anything. Russia negotiates with American envoys who've already conceded the major points. And everyone pretends this is a peace process rather than a slow-motion capitulation dressed up as diplomacy.

Zelensky says he expects news "in the coming days" on the next round of meetings. Translation: more shuttles, more dinners, more promises to "return home" instead of visiting Kyiv. The only people racking up frequent flyer miles are the ones who aren't fighting.

Peace talks: when everyone's negotiating except the Ukraine.

#Ukraine #Russia #Trump #Witkoff #Kushner #Umerov #Zelensky #peacenegotiations #Miami #Moscow

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Putin to Trump’s Envoys: Thanks for the Optics, No Thanks on the Deal

Vladimir Putin didn’t negotiate; he staged a humiliation. Five hours with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin ended with the Americans sent home empty‑handed, while Russian state media feasted on the image of Trump’s son‑in‑law and a Florida developer pleading for “peace” as missiles kept hitting Ukraine. For Moscow, this isn’t a peace process, it’s a live‑action propaganda asset.

Peace as Performance, Not Policy
From Putin’s perspective, the setup is ideal: Trump is loudly sick of “paying for Ukraine,” desperate to announce a deal, and visibly more interested in “ending the war” than in how it ends for Kyiv. That tells the Kremlin Washington is chasing optics, not outcomes; the photo‑op matters more than the text. In that environment, Putin’s best move is obvious: drag things out, raise the price, and let the White House squeeze Kyiv and Europe into ever larger concessions while Russia keeps advancing meter by bloody meter.

Ukraine Bleeds While Trump Changes the Channel
On the ground, Russia grinds forward in the Donbas, pounds cities and power plants, and probes how much more Ukraine’s energy system and manpower can take before something breaks. In Kyiv, Zelensky is politically weakened, foreign aid is conditional and slow, and every new “secret document” Moscow hints at looks like another trap meant to reset the starting line of future talks closer to Russia’s terms. Trump, meanwhile, swings between boasting about the “toughest sanctions ever” and repeating Kremlin-friendly talking points, treating a genocidal war like a TV project he wants wrapped under budget and on schedule.

The “Deal” Trump Wants vs. the War Putin Needs
Trump wants a deal he can announce; Putin wants a war he can survive and turn into a long, grinding proof that U.S. power can be stalled, split, and embarrassed. One side thinks in news cycles and holiday deadlines, the other in decades and the erosion of American hegemony. So Trump sends Kushner and Witkoff as if they’re renegotiating a golf resort; Putin plays the unbothered autocrat with no elections, no oversight, and an economy wired for permanent war. In that mismatch, “productive talks” translate into one result: the Kremlin gains time, leverage, and theater, and Ukraine is told to be “realistic” about losing more of its own land.

#ukraine #russia #trump #putin #kushner #witkoff #war #geopolitics

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💰 Bibi's Charm Offensive: Trump Wants Netanyahu to Make Friends With Deals, Not Threats

The White House is playing matchmaker between Netanyahu and Egypt's Sisi—two leaders who haven't spoken in years and actively avoid each other—but only if Bibi brings a gift first: approval of a multibillion-dollar natural gas deal that would supply 25 percent of Egypt's electricity. Sisi already signed off in July. Netanyahu is dragging his feet because he wants the optics of signing it publicly with Sisi, which means the summit has to happen first — but Sisi won't meet unless Netanyahu has something to offer. Classic Catch-22 wrapped in geopolitics.​

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law peace-broker-in-chief, has been telling Netanyahu the uncomfortable truth: after flattening Gaza and threatening Syria, Israel needs to show the Arab world it has "more to offer than just a negative agenda." Translation: stop obsessing over Iran and start talking money. Kushner's pitch is pure dealmaker logic: get the private sector involved, leverage tech and AI, show up with business delegations like the Qataris do, turn "peace" into a K Street pitch.​

The U.S. strategy is to use economic incentives as glue: gas with Egypt, tech deals with Lebanon and Syria, investment with Saudi Arabia, all designed to get the Abraham Accords "back on track" and bring Israel back into regional conversation as something other than a military threat. Netanyahu told Kushner he wants to meet Sisi but hasn't "seriously engaged," while Sisi has been cool on the whole thing — especially after Netanyahu bailed on Trump's October Gaza peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, a decision that didn't go over well with the Egyptian president.​

The catch: Netanyahu wants to play hardball on timing (only sign gas deal during the summit), Sisi won't show up without a credible economic offer beforehand, and both are nursing two years of zero serious contact. Netanyahu's excuse is "Israeli domestic petty politics," but the real problem is that leaders who spent years ignoring each other don't suddenly trust deals from guys who weren't even talking last month.​

Still, there's an undercurrent of realism here: Trump and Kushner understand that threats don't work in the Middle East anymore — or at least not as the only tool — so they're trying to paper over years of tension with gas revenues and tech contracts. Whether Netanyahu can actually deliver on that without looking like he's rewarding a dictator for normalizing relations after Gaza remains the unanswered question.

When your peace strategy is "just make it about money," you're admitting the politics already failed.

#Netanyahu #Egypt #Sisi #Gaza #AbrahamAccords #Trump #Kushner #naturalgas

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Witkoff Is Upbeat About a Would-Be Putin-Zelensky Meeting


Witkoff said Washington is “hopeful” that it has put proposals to both Russia and Ukraine that could bring them together “in the next three weeks” and potentially result in a summit between their presidents.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview released on Saturday, Witkoff described the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which on Tuesday is set to hit the four-year mark year, as a “silly war.”

“You know, everyone throws the word 'dignity' around. But what does dignity get you if you have that amount of killing there?” Witkoff said, adding that he thinks recent US-mediated peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv have had a “real positive effect in some respects.”

He argued that both Russia and Ukraine “don’t seem like they really want to fight with one another, and I don't think they do," adding that he thinks the main difficulty in reaching a peace agreement lies “at the leadership levels.”

He said he and Kushner are hopeful they have made some proposals that will bring both sides together in the next three weeks “and maybe even result in a summit between Zelensky and Putin.”

He also stated the possibility of such a summit taking place at the trilateral level with Trump’s participation, but noted that the US president does not want to take part in such a meeting “unless he feels that he can consummate this thing and get the best result.”

On his meetings with the Russian president, Witkoff said Putin had been “straight” with him about his red lines and motivations. He defended his multiple visits to Russia, saying that understanding the other side’s positions is necessary to reach an agreement.

Witkoff’s remarks come after he took part in another round of trilateral peace talks on the Russia-Ukraine war in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this week.
The talks on Tuesday and Wednesday followed up on two earlier rounds of negotiations in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 4-5.

#witkoff #putin #zelensky #meeting #kushner

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🕵️ Executive Privilege, Classified Gossip, and Congress Locked Out

The Trump administration has drawn a curtain not just over the public, but over Congress itself. Tulsi Gabbard’s office has told Hill staff it will not share the full classified intelligence that triggered a whistleblower complaint against her, citing “the assertion of executive privilege to portions” of the material — even though the intel in question is an NSA report about a conversation between two foreign nationals discussing Jared Kushner.

Democratic intel chiefs Mark Warner and Jim Himes say they can’t even confirm from the redacted version whether the intercepted discussion was about Kushner, because the complaint they finally received — eight months after it was filed and reportedly kept locked in a safe — is so heavily blacked out. The whistleblower accuses Gabbard of choking off distribution of the intelligence for political reasons and slowing its transmission to Congress; Gabbard denies wrongdoing and points to an inspector general who found the specific allegations about her “not credible,” while pointedly dodging the core transparency question.

Executive privilege is almost never used to keep the Gang of Eight — the top bipartisan intel leaders — from seeing raw intelligence, especially when it’s about third‑country actors talking about a Trump relative, not about internal White House deliberations. Former NSA general counsel Glenn Gerstell calls that move “rare,” and other veterans say flatly it’s abnormal to smother a whistleblower case in secrecy while the same administration leaks just enough to declare the Kushner‑related claims “demonstrably false” without showing why.

Republicans who control the intelligence committees have dismissed the whole affair as a manufactured Democratic smear and see no reason to push past the privilege wall, which leaves Democrats with theory and outrage but no leverage. On paper, Congress oversees the intelligence community; in practice, when a complaint touches Trump’s inner circle, the NSA cites national security, the DNI cites executive privilege, and the people supposedly in charge are told to be grateful for a redacted summary on a read‑and‑return basis.

Call it the new security doctrine: surveillance for everyone, oversight for no one — especially if the intercepts stray too close to the family.

#Gabbard #Kushner #whistleblower #executivePrivilege #NSA #Trump #Congress #USpolitics

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Is Trump Close To Wring Promises Of a Nuclear Decrease in Iranian Program

🔠🅰️🔠🔠1️⃣

Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear programme was significant enough to prevent a rush to war, the Guardian can reveal.

Powell thought progress had been made in Geneva and that the deal proposed by Iran was “surprising”, according to sources.

Two days after the talks ended, and after a date had been agreed for a further round of technical talks in Vienna, the US and Israel launched the attack on Iran.

Powell’s presence at the talks, and his close knowledge of how they were progressing, was confirmed by three sources.

One source said he was in the building at Oman’s ambassadorial residence in Cologny acting as an adviser, reflecting widespread concern about the US expertise on the talks represented by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy on several issues.

Kushner and Witkoff had invited Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to the Geneva talks, to provide technical expertise, though Kushner would later claim that he and Witkoff had “a pretty deep understanding of the issues that matter in this”.

Nuclear experts would later say that Witkoff’s pronouncements on the Iran nuclear programme were riddled with basic errors.

Powell has long experience as a mediator, and one source said Powell brought an expert from the UK Cabinet Office with him. One western diplomat said:

“Jonathan thought there was a deal to be done, but Iran were not quite there yet, especially on the issue of UN inspections of its nuclear sites.”

A former official who was briefed on the Geneva talks by some of the participants said: “Witkoff and Kushner did not bring a US technical team with them. They used Grossi as their technical expert, but that is not his job. So Jonathan Powell took his own team.

“The UK team were surprised by what the Iranians put on the table,” the former official added. “It was not a complete deal, but it was progress and was unlikely to be the Iranians’ final offer. The British team expected the next round of negotiations to go ahead on the basis of the progress in Geneva.”

#trump #iran #witkoff #kushner #iran #nuclear

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🔠🅰️🔠🔠2️⃣

That next round of talks was due to take place in Vienna on Monday 2 March, but never happened. The US and Israel had launched their all-out attack two days earlier.

Powell’s attendance at the Geneva talks, as well as a previous set of meetings earlier in the month in the Swiss city, helps in part to explain the UK government’s reluctance to back the US attack on Iran, a reluctance that has put the UK-US relationship under unprecedented strain.

The UK saw no compelling evidence of an imminent threat of a Iranian missile attack on Europe, or of Iran securing a nuclear weapon.

This is the first time it has become clear that Britain was so closely involved in the talks, and so had good reason to decide whether diplomatic options had been exhausted and a US attack was necessary.

Instead the UK regarded the attack as unlawful and premature since Powell believed the path remained open to a negotiated solution to the long-running issue of how Iran could reassure the US that it was not seeking a nuclear weapon.

Starmer has been repeatedly lambasted by Trump for not doing more to support the US attack, including by initially refusing to let America use British military bases, and only allowing them to be used later for defensive purposes after Iran started attacking UK Gulf allies.

Trump has warned it could be bad for Nato if its European member states do not answer his call to help open the strait of Hormuz, a demand that has been declined.

The indirect talks in Geneva between Iran and the US were being mediated by Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi.

Gulf diplomats did not specify on what basis Powell had been given access to the talks, but it may reflect the relationship he has managed to build with the US over the years, including previously as chief of staff to Tony Blair.

UK officials have subsequently explained they were impressed that Iran was prepared for the deal to be permanent and, unlike the 2015 nuclear agreement, would not have cut-off dates, or sunset clauses ending the restrictions on its programme.

Iran had also agreed to down-blend the 400kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium under the supervision of the IAEA inside Iran.

It agreed no stockpiles of highly enriched uranium would be built up in the future.

In the final session of the talks, Iran agreed to a three- to-five-year pause on domestic enrichment, but the US in the afternoon session, after consultations with Trump, demanded a 10-year pause. In practice, Iran had no means to enrich domestically because of the bombing of its enrichment plants in 2015.

Iran had also made an offer of what the mediators described as an economic bonanza, with the US being given the chance to participate in a future civil nuclear programme.

In return, nearly 80% of the economic sanctions on Iran would have been lifted, including assets frozen in Qatar, a demand Iran made in the 2025 talks.

The Oman mediator believed the offer of zero stockpiling of highly enriched uranium was a breakthrough that meant an agreement was within reach.

Accounts differ on whether Kushner left the talks giving the impression Trump would welcome what had been agreed, or that the US negotiators knew it would take something massive to persuade Trump that war was not the best option. One diplomat with knowledge of the talks said:

“We regarded Witkoff and Kushner as Israeli assets that dragged a president into a war he wants to get out of.”

#trump #iran #witkoff #kushner #iran #nuclear

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Vance: A Stiff Challenge From the Trump Friends ⚠️

Vance is preparing to take on the most important assignment of his career: steering U.S. efforts to end a war he'd been concerned about waging in the first place.

Vance has already had multiple calls with Netanyahu, met Gulf allies about the war and been involved in indirect communications with the Iranians. He's expected to be the top U.S. negotiator in potential peace talks.

Vance was highly skeptical of Israel's rosy prewar assessment of how the war would unfold, and currently expects the war to continue for another few weeks, according to U.S. and Israeli sources.

Vance advisers think some in Israel are trying to undermine the VP, possibly because they find him insufficiently hawkish.

Israeli officials deny that.

President Trump made Vance's role official in a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, asking the VP to give an update on Iran, and noting that he was working with Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the negotiations.

Vance's seniority in the administration and his well-documented opposition to open-ended conflicts overseas, White House officials say, make him a more attractive interlocutor for the Iranians than Witkoff and Kushner, who oversaw the two previous rounds of failed talks.

Partly for those reasons, Witkoff recommended Vance as lead negotiator. “If the Iranians can't strike a deal with Vance, they don't get a deal. He's the best they're gonna get,” a senior administration official said. 📊

A White House official sought to tamp down the speculation, saying that Witkoff and Kushner "are still working their lines and the VP is ready to play his part if negotiations ripen —but we aren't there yet.

The Iranians need to decide if and how they want to come to the table”.

On Thursday, Trump extended his deadline for negotiations with Iran, as Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators keep trying to organize in-person talks.

Iranian officials told the mediators they're still waiting for a green light from “top leadership”.

If such a summit happens, Vance could sit across the table from Iran's speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

The administration is also considering a major military escalation if diplomacy fails. Administration officials suspect foreign agents of spreading the word that Iran wants to negotiate with Vance. 🚀

#vance #trump #challenge #witkoff #kushner

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Witkoff and Kushner: Flight Canceled ✈️❌

Trump canceled the trip by his envoys Witkoff and Kushner to Islamabad due to the Iranian position in peace negotiations. 🇮🇷🤝🚫

The envoys had been expected to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi, in a trip designed to break a diplomatic stalemate and build momentum for a deal.

I see no point of sending them on an 18-hour flight in the current situation [of the negotiations]. It's too long. We can do it just as well by telephone. 📞

Asked whether it means he is going to resume the war, Trump said: "No. It doesn't mean that. We haven't thought about it yet." ⚔️🚫

"We have all the cards. We are not going to go there to sit around talking about nothing." 🃏

Trump later told reporters Saturday afternoon that the meeting with the Iranians wasn't going to happen until Tuesday, and that therefore he thought it was a waste of time to travel to Pakistan. 🕰

He also said a counteroffer Araghchi gave the Pakistanis on Saturday wasn't good enough. 📄🚫

"They gave us a paper that should have been better and interestingly the minute I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better (…) they offered a lot but not enough," Trump said. ⏱️📝

While Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran earlier this week, the diplomatic efforts haven't made any progress in recent days. 🕊⏸️

U.S. officials had said Iran's divided factions had a short window to come together on an offer. 🪟👥

"There is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them," Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday after calling off the trip. 😵‍💫📢

Araghchi met on Saturday in Islamabad with Pakistan's prime minister, army commander, and foreign minister, who have been mediating between the sides. 🇵🇰🤝

But the talks ended with no significant progress. Araghchi left Islamabad without committing to meet Witkoff and Kushner if they traveled to Pakistan. 🚶‍♂️🚫

The Iranian foreign minister expressed in his meetings that Iran demands the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade as a pre-condition for talks. ⚓️🚫

About an hour after Araghchi left Islamabad, Trump decided to cancel the trip. ⏳❌

"Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy," Araghchi said in a post on X thanking the Pakistanis for their efforts. 🤔🇺🇸

What comes next isn't clear, though Trump allies called on the president to continue pressure on the Iranians — even if that means resuming military operations. 🤷‍♂️🔥

#witkoff #kushner #araghchi #trump #flight

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Kushner in Cairo: Hamas First, Netanyahu Later

Jared Kushner met Hamas leaders in Egypt before flying to Israel to see Benjamin Netanyahu. In Middle East diplomacy, this is what a hierarchy looks like when the person with guns must be persuaded before the person with an army can be briefed.

Kushner’s meeting with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya lasted more than two hours and included Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators.

Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s director general for Gaza, also took part. Tony Blair was part of the wider delegation expected to continue on to meetings with Netanyahu.

The purpose was direct. Washington wanted a personal Hamas commitment to the roadmap for Gaza, especially disarmament, before Kushner met the Israeli prime minister.

The U.S. message was reportedly blunt: no political role for Hamas, no reconstruction and no wider Gaza political track until the group gives up its weapons and military infrastructure.

Hamas has already agreed, in principle, to a phased disarmament plan. Heavy weapons, production sites, depots and tunnel infrastructure would be inventoried and placed under a Palestinian national committee, with international verification and a stabilization force involved.

Israeli withdrawals are supposed to follow verified steps in that process. Hamas insists that implementation depends on Israel meeting its own obligations.

That is the part no one says loudly enough. Hamas is being asked to trade guns for a future administration it will not run, reconstruction it will not control and Israeli withdrawals it cannot enforce.

Israel is being asked to withdraw after Hamas disarms, but is also resisting the political plan built around that sequence.

Kushner reportedly told Hamas not to wait for Israeli elections, because Israel’s position on Gaza would not meaningfully change. That may be the clearest line of the meeting. Elections can change ministers. The U.S. message is that they will not change the terms of Palestinian surrender.

Israel’s Tzav 9 movement condemned the meeting, saying Hamas should have no legitimacy or voice after October 7. The group’s objection is instructive. The preferred peace process is one in which Hamas disarms before it speaks, and speaks only after it has disappeared.

Meanwhile, the personal commitment to disarm was reportedly delivered on the same day Israel struck two alleged militants in Gaza.

First, Hamas promises to put down its weapons.

Then Israel decides whether the promise counts.

#Gaza #Hamas #Israel #Kushner #Trump #Netanyahu #Egypt #disarmament

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Jared Kushner Is Talking Directly To Hamas 🗣


Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a rare meeting with Hamas’s political chief on Sunday in Egypt, in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire.

Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map.

The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations.

A meeting between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped clinch the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas’s disarmament.

The over two-hour meeting in Egypt with Hamas’s political chief, Khalil al-Hayya, was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there.

Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, last week rejected the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration, Israel’s closest ally.

Kushner’s meeting with the Hamas leader aimed at ensuring the militant group’s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said.

The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties’ approval of the road map to begin.

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on 27 October as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it’s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the three-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

Netanyahu’s Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming “Arab states want to topple” Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan “will give them everything they want. That will not happen.”

#kushner #trump #hamas #netanyahu

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Netanyahu, Kushner, and the Board of Peace

Jared Kushner arrived in Jerusalem after sitting in Cairo with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, in meetings that included Hamas representatives. Then came more than four hours with Benjamin Netanyahu, a prime minister who had called the new Gaza roadmap “unacceptable” only days earlier.

Netanyahu brought Shin Bet chief David Zini and military-intelligence chief Shlomi Binder. Israel’s message was that Hamas had violated its commitments and that Turkish funding remained part of the problem.

The American delegation included Kushner, Gaza Board of Peace director-general Nickolay Mladenov, Tony Blair and senior advisers.

The agreement, in the Israeli telling, is simple. No reconstruction before Hamas is fully disarmed. No further Israeli redeployment before Gaza is demilitarized.

Every rifle, rocket, tunnel and workshop must become an item in a supervised disposal process. Israel will retain what it calls the right to self-defense and to act against any renewed Hamas activity.

Then comes the public-health track.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the sides created two working groups. One will handle Hamas’s disarmament and Gaza’s demilitarization. The other will address sanitation, clean water and public health, including issues that “also impact the people of Israel.” Gaza’s future has been divided into two tasks: remove the weapons, then contain the disease.

The mechanics of disarmament changed during the day. Early reports said Hamas would hand weapons to an American force for destruction.

Later accounts said Hamas would first transfer them to a Palestinian technocratic government, which would then pass them to an International Stabilization Force. One thing did not change: an American general would supervise and verify the process.

The underlying dispute did not disappear. Netanyahu insists targeted killings will continue while Hamas remains armed. Kushner reportedly wants Israel to take limited steps that could test whether Hamas’s disarmament pledge is genuine, while the U.S. works to prevent a wider escalation.

They agreed to build a “deconfliction” mechanism, diplomacy’s way of admitting that the deal is being negotiated under live fire.

Smotrich said the quiet part out loud. Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, he argued, is incompatible with negotiating with Hamas leaders who “should not be alive at all.”

That is the whole roadmap in one sentence. Hamas must negotiate its own disappearance. Israel must decide whether each weapon surrendered is enough to pause the next strike. The Americans must turn those two incompatible jobs into a working group.

Inside Gaza, the practical question remains: who will hold the keys to the arms depots while everyone waits to see whether the war is truly over?

#Gaza #Israel #Hamas #Kushner #Netanyahu #BoardOfPeace #disarmament #MiddleEast

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🇮🇶🇪🇬 Hamas Moves Between Baghdad and Washington

A Hamas delegation led by Osama Hamdan was reported to have met in Baghdad with Hadi al-Ameri, head of Iraq’s Badr Organization and a central figure in the country’s Iran-aligned political and militia network.

If confirmed, the meeting would underline a familiar fact: Hamas still operates through the regional relationships built with Iran and its partners. Baghdad is not Doha or Ankara. But it is part of the same political geography in which Hamas’s external leadership has sought money, protection, influence, and military support.

At the same time, Washington is dealing with Hamas through a very different channel.

On Sunday, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s envoy, met Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s overall leader, in El Alamein, Egypt. It was Kushner’s second meeting with al-Hayya after their October 2025 talks helped produce the ceasefire and hostage-release agreement. The meeting marked another break with Washington’s long-standing policy of refusing direct engagement with Hamas, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.

Kushner was joined by Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, senior envoys of the U.S.-backed Board of Peace.

The body is intended to oversee the Gaza roadmap, including a planned transfer of Gaza’s civilian administration to a Palestinian technocratic committee and a process for placing Hamas weapons under that committee’s control. Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey also sent senior diplomats.

The central dispute was not diplomatic etiquette. It was sequencing.

Hamas told Kushner it would begin handing over weapons only after Israel publicly committed to the plan’s terms. Israel has maintained that it will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed.

The American-backed framework asks each side to move first while promising that the other side eventually will.

Freddy Eytan, a former senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official and researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs, criticized the meeting as a step toward legitimizing Hamas. In an opinion piece, he wrote: “How can Donald Trump authorize direct negotiations with a terrorist organization?”

He argued that Israel should “be uncompromising on security issues and obtain robust guarantees from the United States.” This is Eytan’s assessment, not an account from the negotiating room.

Hamas can speak with an Iran-aligned militia leader in Baghdad while its leadership negotiates with a U.S. envoy in Egypt.

The organization is not being asked to choose between those channels. It is being asked to surrender weapons while keeping both open.

#Hamas #Gaza #Iraq #Egypt #Kushner #Iran #Ceasefire #MiddleEast

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