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A senior security source addressed the expansion of the fighting in Gaza, which has been codenamed "Operation Gideon Chariots," and says that the goal will be "to defeat and subdue Hamas in Gaza and release all hostages." According to the source, "In accordance with the plan formulated by the Chief of Staff and the IDF Command and approved by the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister, the IDF will increase its forces and act forcefully to defeat and subdue Hamas and destroy its military and governmental capabilities, while creating strong pressure for the release of all the hostages. A...

Just shy of two weeks ago, President Trump spoke with assurance during a media event in the Oval Office with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were in a good place, and that U.S./Ukraine minerals deal could be signed shortly. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent piped up later on Apr. 17 that the timeline was looking closer to the 26th. The images of the two leaders' last meeting in D.C., with Zelensky causing a commotion over the president's and Vice President JD Vance's responses to his strident statements during their sit-down, then departing from the...

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".

Shortly after then-Secretary of State John Kerry concluded talks with his Iranian counterpart that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement, the wizards at Google had already delivered judgment. When I typed in the phrase, “how not to buy a carpet” at Google images, the first result was a photo of the two foreign ministers and their aides, facing each other across the negotiating table in Lausanne. The ever-smiling Mohammad Javad Zarif told Kerry three times they had a deal, but that he needed to go back to Tehran to run it by the "Supreme Leader." And three times he came...

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the U.S. delegation for nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios. -snip- So far, there have only been negotiations about the negotiations — which don't yet seem to be resolved. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whom Iranian press reports say will be Iran's chief negotiator, insisted the talks would be "indirect" — with Omani mediators passing messages between the sides. Trump insisted the talks would be "direct." Two U.S. officials told Axios that is indeed the plan. Whatever the format, the stakes are clear....

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.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism on Sunday ahead of high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia to end the war in Ukraine and said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to end the three-year-old conflict."I feel that he wants peace," Witkoff told Fox News.A U.S. delegation is due to hold talks later on Sunday in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian officials on a possible partial ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. U.S. and Russian officials will then hold talks on Monday, also in Saudi Arabia."I think that you're going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as...

US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday expressed optimism ahead of high-stakes talks to end the war in Ukraine and said on Fox News he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted peace.

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...

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...

Donald’s Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night in Moscow as the White House pushes the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine. “The meeting between Witkoff and President Vladimir Putin will take place in a closed format this evening,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in response to a question from Russian state-owned news outlet Izvestia.

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

Contacts between Russia and the United States are now quite intensive, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency. Zakharova was commenting on media reports that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow this week to meet President Vladimir Putin.

A suggestion by the Trump administration’s top negotiator that an Ukraine peace deal would be based on talks conducted in Istanbul nearly three years ago has buoyed Russian officials and spooked Ukraine and its backers. To Kyiv, recent remarks by Steve Witkoff appeared to embrace the Kremlin’s key, and incorrect, talking point over the past three years: that Ukraine and Russia were about to strike a peace deal in Istanbul, and that Kyiv walked away from an agreement under pressure from Western politicians, such as then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded that any future...

US special envoy Steve Witkoff will not be coming to the region tomorrow, according to the Ynet news site. Axios reports that Witkoff is delaying the trip to focus on US-led efforts to find a negotiated end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. No new date has been given for the visit.

-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.

US envoy Steve Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia, the White House announces. Developing

-snip- Asked about unconfirmed reports on Telegram and X that U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff may have flown into Moscow, Peskov said he had no information about the matter and that no meetings with him were on the agenda. Later on Tuesday, Rosaviatsia, Russia's aviation regulator, issued a statement in response to what it said were media questions and reports after flight tracking services showed a private jet landing in Moscow from the United States. The regulator said it was a one-off technical flight from Washington to Moscow related to "humanitarian cooperation" of a medical nature. It did not...