This five-minute interview yesterday morning is interesting for the opportunity I was given to explain why the visit on Friday of Donald Trump’s personal emissary Steve Witkoff to Petersburg for a meeting with President Putin was likely taken on short notice. It was less for purposes of continuing talks on ending the Ukraine war that it was for consultations on how to proceed Saturday in talks with the Iranian Foreign Minister in Oman which Putin had arranged. Judging by the comments from the White House today that the Iranian talks were constructive and that a further meeting is planned in one week’s time, we may conclude that Vladimir Putin has helped to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for Trump on Iran just as he did for Barack Obama in September 2013 by agreeing with Bashar Assad on the destruction of Syria’s stock of chemical weapons.
If so, then this augurs well for a ‘U.S. brokered’ peace in Ukraine. Not a cease-fire but a genuine peace, essentially on Russian terms. Putin will have demonstrated what benefits can accrue to the U.S. from normal, cooperative relations with Russia.