Witkoff leaks throw entire peace talks into doubt

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/11/26/witkoff-putin-aide-call-leak-trump-diplomacy-analysis/

Donald Trump arrived in office as the dealmaker-in-chief.

He has delighted in choosing unconventional figures to lead negotiations in the belief that a background in the nitty-gritty of New York real estate is more useful than a career in international relations wonkery.

It meant Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, were not constrained by decades of bloody stalemate in Gaza. Instead they confounded critics by delivering a ceasefire in the territory, even if it has not completely silenced the guns nor found much progress yet towards a longer term peace.

But Mr Witkoff’s lack of experience may now have been badly exposed in the leak of an extraordinary phone call with a senior Kremlin official.

Who leaked it and why will have to wait for another day. (Although there are obvious suspects in a Russian administration that appears content to delay and prevaricate its way through peace talks while its bombs and drones fall on Ukrainian targets.)

And it is worth remembering that diplomacy is always best carried out far from the gaze of the media, where currying favour with thuggish leaders or making ugly promises with negotiators is the price of progress.

Even with those caveats, Mr Witkoff’s apparent coaching of Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on how to handle Mr Trump and the stop-start peace process is deeply embarrassing.

He offers advice for Putin’s call with the US president (ladle on the praise) and goes on to suggest that the Russian president propose a similar deal for Ukraine as the one that ended fighting in Gaza.