The State Of Peace Negotiations

On one level American peace overtures to Russia are progressing without a letup. The US is ardently wooing a somewhat coy Russia. Trump and Rubio are holding out inducements. Consider:

Trump says US could lift Russia sanctions

The US could lift sanctions against Russia “at some point” during the Ukraine peace negotiations, President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday. He noted, however, that no decision has been made so far.

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US open to economic cooperation with Russia – Rubio

The US and Russia could restore economic ties once the Ukraine conflict is resolved, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested.

Speaking in an interview with Breitbart on Tuesday, Rubio noted that Moscow and Washington could discuss the economic and business domain, but only after they have ensured the smooth operations of each other’s diplomatic missions and have resolved the Ukraine crisis.

“We have to invite them and see, okay, if you guys are serious about ending this thing, let’s sit down and talk about it,” Rubio said. “I think step three is, if we can end this conflict, what does US-Russian relations look like in the 21st century? Are there things we can work on together geopolitically or maybe even economically?”

According to Rubio, Russia and the US have “opportunities to work together” to achieve a “reset” in relations which will “entail talking about not just Russian assets that have been seized by America, by the Europeans … but also American companies that have been hurt.”

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There have also been rumors of a US drawdown or even withdrawal from eastern areas of NATO. Those remain rumors, but the Trump 2.0 encouragement of regime change in key NATO member states and its refusal to deal with the EU as such—instead dealing with individual nation states—must be encouraging to Russia.

On the other hand, Russia—since the draft treaties of December, 2021—has insisted on formal treaties that guarantee a new security architecture. Ad hoc moves by the US, while welcome, are not enough to establish a real peace. Various high level Russian officials have made it clear that their position on this hasn’t changed, and that hints and promises of developments in the future will not lead to a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine in the present. Most specifically, Russia directly contradicted Trump’s claim that Russia would accept “peacekeepers” in Ukraine, terming Trump’s proposal “totally unacceptable.” All of which suggests that Trump’s claim of “peace in a few weeks” is unlikely to happen and that Russia will continue to transform conditions on the ground.

There are additional considerations. While most Westerners don’t seem to see the linkage between Ukraine and the Middle East, at each step of the talks between Russia and the US the agenda has included references to Palestine and the Middle East—always #2 on the list of topics to be discussed. This needs to be taken very seriously and the inclusion of these topics is almost certainly at the insistence of Russia. While Trump would like to pry Russia away from its BRICS commitments—especially those to Iran and China—that’s just not going to happen. Putin sees BRICS and the new trade corridors running through Iran all the way to the Baltic as an essential part of Russian economic development. The Russians are fully cognizant of the centuries long Anglo-Zionist scheme to isolate Russia from access to the outside world, leading to ultimate subjugation. They are not about to give away the store for a side deal on Ukraine.

In that light, recent news from the Middle East is unsettling.

Israel continues its military expansion into Syria, as well as the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

The humanitarian situation in Syria is increasingly dire, with widespread shortages of basic goods. This could lead to a new wave of refugees from the region.

Iraq is reporting increasing ISIS activity—which logically means increasing US and Israeli support for ISIS.

Iran has stated that it will not engage in talks with the US.

Russian FM Lavrov was in Teheran this week and stated that the situation in Palestine is “alarming” and “unacceptable.”

Doug Macgregor has been predicting a major regional war in the Middle East for months. Yesterday, speaking with Danny Davis, he stated that it could happen as soon as March. I can’t speak to that, of course, but I’m sure Macgregor had some of these developments in mind. Russia knows that the US is behind all of these developments. Since imposing a ceasefire, Trump has taken ownership of Gaza, but that also means that he owns Israel. If war does break out it will only be because the US has acceded to it. Russia will not abandon Iran, because that would lead to increased economic isolation for Russia. Russia and the US will be on opposite sides in any Middle East war. And that means that Trump can kiss his peace with Russia goodbye—this has been a global war from the start and no settlement can take place without global tensions being part of the deal.

All these considerations explain why Russia is taking a go slow approach to Trump’s overtures. Trump undoubtedly, in my view, wants peace. But the Anglo-Zionists definitely want war to continue and even to spread. That means that Trump is engaged in a high wire act without a guarantee of reaching the other end.