 "This combination of pictures shows, (left to right), US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff , US Senator Marco Rubio and US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. AFP")
US authorities said Saturday that a top delegation from US President Donald Trump’s administration will begin negotiations with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on resolving the war in Ukraine in Saudi Arabia.
According to the officials, Trump’s Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will go to Saudi Arabia for the discussions.
The action was taken just days after Trump declared that he had agreed to begin negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he had talked to for the first time since taking office.
Regarding the dates of the meetings and the officials’ travel, the officials provided no more information.
But Rubio had already been due to visit Saudi Arabia as part his first tour of the Middle East, which began on Saturday when he arrived in Israel, an AFP journalist reported.
Rubio earlier Saturday had a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in which he “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine,” the State Department said.
Former property developer Witkoff was heavily involved in a prisoner exchange deal earlier this week that paved the way for the call between Trump and Putin.
Witkoff even traveled to Moscow to bring home US detainee Marc Fogel.
In a social media post announcing the Putin call earlier this week, Trump had said he had tasked Rubio, Waltz, Witkoff and CIA chief John Ratcliffe to immediately get to work on a deal with Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsKyiv and its European allies were however blindsided by Trump’s sudden move to start negotiations with Russia.
Both fear being frozen out of negotiations on Ukraine’s future after the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.