If Europe had any kind of say in the matter, it probably wouldn’t have chosen to put its future safety and security in the hands of Steve Witkoff. Sadly for the hundreds of millions of us living on this continent, the choice is out of our hands.
Witkoff’s official title – at least at first – was US Special Envoy to the Middle East, a new role created by Donald Trump that placed this entitled amateur in charge of securing a lasting peace deal between Israel and Hamas that would end the relentless bombardment of Gaza.
As if that weren’t enough, the US President soon made it clear that Witkoff would also be expected to negotiate a broader Middle Eastern peace deal, ending numerous simmering regional conflicts involving Iran.
There is officially a ceasefire in Gaza – though the enclave’s administration claims Israel has breached it more than 1,600 times – but Iran is anything but settled, and Trump has American warships standing ready in the region as he demands a new nuclear deal within days. Iran’s previous deal on nuclear proliferation was the work of years of patient negotiation. Trump wants a new one virtually overnight.
Now, the witless Witkoff – who last year said he “liked” Vladimir Putin and didn’t “regard him as a bad guy” – is spending this week trying to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, to end a war Trump repeatedly claimed he could easily end on “day one” of returning to the Oval Office.
The USA has one of the largest and most experienced diplomatic corps on the planet, but under Trump, the entire operation has been outsourced to one man. It’s Steve Witkoff – a man who cannot remember the names of Ukrainian territories – or nothing.
Witkoff has apparently decided that what he doesn’t know simply doesn’t matter. He has been willing to send US diplomatic staff and CIA personnel out of the room to negotiate with Russia solo. He has been happy to rely on the Kremlin’s translators, rather than bring his own – a major faux pas where having clear communication and no ambiguities matters. On a trip to Moscow last August, he obtained no major concessions and rewarded Putin with an invitation to meet Trump in Alaska.
He has called Putin “super smart” and suggested Ukraine should give up territory to Russia. In the transcript of a leaked call with Putin aide Yuri Ushakov from November, Witkoff expressed his “deepest respect” for the Russian President, and he has reportedly been working on a plan to strengthen economic ties with the country, rather than extending sanctions.
Is he amoral, or just incompetent? Usually, sensitive diplomatic negotiations are left to people with huge experience of the areas in which they operate. Typically, the lead negotiator has lived and worked in the region for decades, speaks the relevant languages, and has relationships with key powerbrokers in the various factions involved. They know the history, the resentments, the red lines. The hope is they can leverage that into the patient drudgework of diplomacy, dragging often reluctant parties over the line to a deal none of them will love, but that they can all live with.
That is not Steve Witkoff’s way. How could it be? No one on the planet has intimate experience of Israel, Gaza, Iran, Russia and Ukraine. But Witkoff has virtually no experience of diplomacy whatsoever.
His background is almost identical to Trump’s – Witkoff is a billionaire who made his money through real estate deals. His portfolio is even more US-focused than the President’s, and the handful of major deals his company closed outside the US were in London. Witkoff knows the world of US real estate, and little else.
Witkoff is doing a job so difficult that it would outfox even the most seasoned of professionals. Millions of people have been killed and injured in the conflict since Russia invaded Ukraine. Thousands more are added to that total every day. The nature of the peace deal will shape the future of Eastern Europe – not just whether Ukraine stays free, but whether its neighbours need fear Russian invasion, too.
Your next read
square USA AnalysisTrump is in moment of maximum danger – Epstein testimony could seal his fate
square WORLDOur six-year-old is British – but new border rules could block her return to the UK
square WORLDPutin is using the worst of Britain’s political errors for his own gain
square WORLD ExplainedPutin’s 10-day ‘disappearance’ prompts flurry of rumours – here’s what we know
It is Ukrainians first, and then Europeans, who will pay with their lives if Witkoff screws up – Americans will sit a continent away and pretend it’s not their problem if it blows up in their faces.
But there are simply no other options while Trump continues to insist Witkoff is their man. He might be arrogant, hopelessly out of his depth and woefully unaware of that reality. And yet he is the only show in town, and so Ukraine’s leaders, Europe’s leaders, and the rest of the world have to try to keep him on side and hope he isn’t too easily charmed or fooled by Russia.
What a way to run a world.
Hence then, the article about trump s failing peacekeeping envoy is either incompetent or amoral was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump’s failing peacekeeping envoy is either incompetent or amoral )
Also on site :
- Canaan Inc. Acquires Cipher Mining's Interest in Multiple Operational Mining Projects Totaling ~4.4 EH/s in West Texas
- Anthropic accuses Chinese AI labs of mining Claude as US debates AI chip exports
- The best Crazy Time apps to download and play in Bangladesh