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Israeli security official: “We knew this (our intelligence) would lead them to meet — but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there.” ... An Israeli security official told Fox News that Israel tricked Iran’s leading air force commanders into gathering for a meeting to distract them during a strike on their nuclear facilities. “We carried out specific activities to help us learn more about them, and then used that information to influence their behavior,” the official told Fox News. “We knew this would lead them to meet — but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there.”...

White House envoy Steve Witkoff privately warned top Senate Republicans last week that Iran could unleash a mass casualty response if Israel bombs their nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. official and a source with direct knowledge. -snip- Last Thursday, Witkoff held a closed-door briefing on Iran with a group of Republican senators. Among them were Sens. Risch (R-Idaho), Graham (R-S.C.), Barasso (R-Wyo.), and Ricketts (R-Nebr.), the source with knowledge said. Witkoff told the Senators that military strikes by Israel are on the table if no agreement is reached. He then brought up Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. The U.S. is...

The Trump administration confirms that US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff will travel to Muscat on Sunday for the sixth round of nuclear talks with Iran. Talks will be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds, says a statement to reporters attributed to a source familiar.

A month before President Trump’s inauguration, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to the United Arab Emirates with two goals: discussing regional issues with the Abu Dhabi royal known as the “spy sheikh,” and attending a cryptocurrency conference. Less than five months later, Witkoff’s son, co-founder of the crypto venture World Liberty Financial, took the stage at a conference in Dubai to announce the company had struck a deal for the sheikh’s company to buy $2 billion of their new cryptocurrency. The expected tens of millions of dollars in annual profits would be split between the Witkoffs and their co-founders—and...

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seemingly at odds amid a U.S. truce with Houthis in Yemen and the President seeking to peacefully negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran without plunging the United States into another endless war. According to Axios, Trump met with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in private on Thursday to discuss upcoming nuclear talks with Iran and Israel’s Gaza campaign. Dremer also met with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Trump is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates on...

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike. "Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of...

Washington and Tehran are expected to hold a second round of nuclear talks this Saturday, April 19, in Rome, following what Axios described as a “serious and substantive” first meeting in Oman. On April 12, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi held the highest-level US-Iran dialogue in eight years. Trump later said the talks are "going ok".

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent rival teams to Washington for talks with the Trump administration as ceasefire negotiations for the war in Ukraine are underway, according to an independent investigative Russian news outlet. On Thursday, Kirill Dmitriev, a businessman and Putin's investment envoy, announced that he is in Washington this week to hold talks with U.S. officials. The official, who runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund, is meeting Trump ally Steve Witkoff at Putin's request, he said. Putin also gave the go-ahead for another rival team to engage in talks with Washington, news site Agentstvo reported on Thursday. The two teams...

A major witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was arrested Monday on child-pornography charges, after flying into the U.S. for the first time since his cooperation with Mr. Mueller’s team. George Nader, a dual U.S. and Lebanese citizen, was charged in a criminal complaint more than a year ago, in April 2018, after he had spent hours with Mr. Mueller’s investigators detailing his contacts with Trump allies and efforts to set up meetings between Trump campaign associates and a Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin. Nobody connected to the Trump campaign was charged as a result of Mr....

A Russian official is expected to visit Washington, D.C., this week for talks with the Trump administration, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing a U.S. official and two sources familiar with the plans. The official, Kirill Dmitriev, will meet with Steve Witkoff, a Trump administration official, for talks about strengthening relations between the two countries as they seek to end the war in Ukraine, according to CNN.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has turned into a key piece of manpower in the Donald J. Trump administration when it comes to high-level negotiations.Witkoff comes from a real estate investor and lawyer background, having held no formal diplomatic posts until Trump called him to serve.Despite that, the 45-47th US President has trusted him with not one, but two seemingly impossible tasks: to negotiate peace in the Middle East and also to head the détente process with Russia, achieving an end to the war in Ukraine.The Special Envoy was received twice by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is highly unusual, and...

Russia does not seek to absorb all of Ukraine, as the Russians have "returned" five regions and Crimea, obtaining what they need, states the US Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. The Special Envoy emphasized the importance of reaching a fair agreement for Ukraine, but stressed that the US and Western countries cannot allow this country to drag them into a Third World War. He added that this is not his personal opinion, but the policy of President Donald Trump. When asked by the journalist about the plans of the UK and several other European countries to send...

Witkoff said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that the two leaders had sent signals to each other of their readiness for dialogueNEW YORK, March 22. /TASS/. US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff has said that he delivered Donald Trump’s portrait commissioned by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the US president. Witkoff said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that the two leaders had sent signals to each other of their readiness for dialogue. "President Putin, to his credit, sent all kinds of signals back to the [US] president that this is the path that he...

A delegation of United States diplomats arrived in Moscow on Thursday morning for talks on agreeing a ceasefire in the Ukraine War, with a possible call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin to follow. America’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff flew into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Thursday morning, having travelled from Doha, Qatar by way of European airspace on a Gulfstream executive jet. Witkoff and a team of negotiators are in the Russian capital to attempt to hammer out an agreement on the proposed Ukraine War 30-day ceasefire.

A plane carrying US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is helping lead the discussion with Moscow, has crossed Russian border, TASS news agency reports citing, Flightradar. Developing

The man who has emerged as Donald Trump's geopolitical dealmaker-in-chief has said that he's developed a "friendship" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Steve Witkoff was named as Mr Trump's Middle East envoy shortly after the US election but he has since been involved in negotiations with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine. Mr Witkoff made the comments about his relationship with Mr Putin at a Saudi-run investment forum in Miami, where he discussed his remarkable overnight trip to Moscow last week to secure the release of US citizen Marc Fogel. "I spent a lot of time with Putin. Talking...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won't accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. "Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable," he said. Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war. "Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said following the meeting. Ukraine was not invited...

President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is the congenial dealmaker for the very brash dealmaker-in-chief. -snip- Associates describe Witkoff, 67, as something of a velvet glove when it comes to negotiating — smooth and to the point. Witkoff helped persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to release U.S. teacher Marc Fogel on Monday, after talks in Moscow. Witkoff played a key role in getting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Hamas last month. He's also Trump's point man for talks the president wants to have with Iran to try to reach a new nuclear deal...

-snip- Fogel was released into the custody of Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who made an unannounced stop in Moscow on Tuesday to pick him up. The Washington Post said that according to Fox News broadcaster Sean Hannity, Witkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, had a three-and-a-half hour meeting with Putin. Peskov said he had "nothing to say" on that.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday he had no information about unconfirmed reports on Telegram that U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff might have flown into Moscow, saying no meetings with him were on the agenda.