Witkoff will meet with senior officials from Qatar, Türkiye and Egypt today in Miami. Tomorrow, in the same city, he will receive Kirill Dmitriev. The Middle Eastern and Ukrainian dossiers appear increasingly intertwined
Ukrainian and Middle Eastern diplomacy are increasingly intersecting. Second AxiosSteve Witkoff will meet with senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye today in Miami to discuss the next phase of the Gaza peace plan. The meeting is expected to be attended by the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, and the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty. “This is the highest-level meeting between mediators in the United States since the agreement was signed in October,” the newspaper underlined, referring to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Today’s meeting takes place at a time of tension between Washington and Jerusalem. The White House did not like the Israeli attack on Gaza last Saturday, while the Jewish state is angered by the possible sale of F-35 fighters to Qatar. But that’s not all. Tomorrow, again in Miami, Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet the CEO of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev: in particular, considering to the Associated Pressthe three are expected to discuss the results of the recent summit on Ukraine, held in Berlin. We also remember that, again in Miami, Witkoff had held talks with the Kiev delegation.
In short, it seems that Florida is in some way representing the epicenter of US diplomatic strategy for both the Middle Eastern and Ukrainian crises: two dossiers that Donald Trump has always considered closely intertwined. The occupant of the White House knows well that Vladimir Putin aims to recover ground in the Middle East, after the fall of Bashar al Assad in Syria and following the weakening of Iran. Furthermore, the Tsar does not want to be left out of the reconstruction of Gaza: the fundamental premise for achieving the revival of the Abraham Accords that the American president is trying to promote. In this sense, Trump hopes to leverage the Middle East to put the Kremlin under pressure and thus obtain its softening on the Ukrainian front. The Tsar, for his part, is trying to reduce this vulnerability, in two ways. First of all, it aims to carve out the role of indispensable mediator between Washington and Tehran on nuclear issues. Secondly, he is strengthening his position with Benjamin Netanyahu, taking advantage of the tensions between the Israeli prime minister and the American president.
Finally, let’s not forget the role of Türkiye. Ankara has strengthened its ties with Washington in the Middle East: it is in this context that the détente between the White House and the current pro-Turkish regime in Damascus should be seen, for example. On the other hand, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is absolutely intent on increasing his weight in the Ukrainian diplomatic process. It cannot therefore be ruled out at all that, in the next few days, Witkoff, in Miami, will address the two dossiers, the Middle Eastern one and the Ukrainian one, intertwining them with each other.
