Bennett, Erdogan seek to fill diplomatic vacuum over Ukraine
Qatar’s role in Iran diplomacy even more vital with pause in Vienna nuclear talks.
US leaves diplomatic lane open
The Biden administration has so far not given much visible priority to negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine war, leaving the diplomatic lane open for other players.
Most prominent among the interlocutors have been French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who are also mediators for the Minsk Agreements established in 2014 between Moscow and Kyiv that aim to end hostilities over the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has been cool to the European mediation efforts, because Macron and Scholz have joined the US-led sanctions regime against Russia, and therefore, in Putin’s view, possess limited credibility as impartial brokers, as Dimitri Simes explains in this week’s On the Middle East podcast.
