Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in Geneva

What happened

President Donald Trump’s two main envoys, his friend Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Tuesday held back-to-back negotiations in Geneva aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The indirect talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, mediated by Oman, were “more constructive” than previous talks and made “good progress” toward a “clear path ahead,” Araghchi told Iranian TV.

Who said what

Sending Witkoff and Kushner to solve two entrenched conflicts “in a single day in Geneva” has “raised questions not only about whether they are overstretched and outmatched, but about their serious prospects for resolving either of the twin crises,” Reuters said. Trump’s “diplomacy without diplomats” gambit, The New York Times said, was a “stark example” of his “conviction that the State Department and the National Security Council, the two institutions that have coordinated negotiations over global crises for nearly 80 years, are best left on the sidelines.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who heads both organizations, was not involved in Tuesday’s shuttle diplomacy.

“Some countries really welcome this informal structure” of transactional deal-making, said Asli Aydintasbas of the Brookings Institution, per the Times. But “I have not seen anyone hugely impressed with the diplomatic skills of the current team.” Having “Witkoff and Kushner tasked with resolving all the world’s problems is, frankly, a shocking reality,” Mohanad Hage-Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut told Reuters.

What next?

The U.S.-Russian-Ukrainian talks are continuing for a second day, but “expectations were low for a breakthrough,” Reuters said. Today’s talks, the Times said, “were expected to focus on the fate of Ukrainian-held territory” that “Moscow wants under its control as the price for ending the war.”

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