Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Russian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Embassies on Israel and the Prospects of a Peace Agreement over Ukraine
Since the deadly Hamas on Israel attack in 2023, Israel’s Defense Ministry has recieved nearly 700 airlifts and 129 sea shipments of military equipment.
He spoke just after Israel received a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs from the United States that can burrow deep underground and cause widespread destruction. The shipment was frozen by the Biden administration due to their concerns over its use in densely populated neighborhoods in Gaza.
“We’re in a position to change the Middle East,” he said, adding that the possibilities that loom before Israel today are unique. ” They have never been available to us as they are now and we intend to pursue them to the full.”
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the U.S.-Israeli alliance under Trump, telling reporters that he and Rubio talked about how to “complete the change in the Middle East.”
The exchange is part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that’s set to expire in two weeks, with the Trump administration pushing for the ceasefire to continue until all hostages are brought home.
Rubio arrived a day after three more Israeli hostages, including a dual American-Israeli citizen, were released by Hamas in exchange for more than 300 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Many Palestinians who were held without charge and returned to Gaza were found guilty of violent crimes.
Ukrainians are not part of Monday’s meeting in Saudi Arabia, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in the UAE with his wife on Monday, ahead of an expected visit to Saudi Arabia this week.
While in Saudi Arabia, a group of people, including a National Security advisor, are meeting with a Russian delegation. The Kremlin says that talks are aimed at laying the ground for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and exploring the shape of a peace agreement over Ukraine.
Rubio’s visit to the Middle East and talks on a possible outcome of the current conflict in Gaza, a lesson from the UAE, Russia and the United States
He said that they can’t keep doing it the same way and end up in the same place. A military or government force can’t continue with hamas.
Iran is described as the greatest force of instability in the region. He said that it was what’s on the table for now, and that the plan for Gaza surprised many.
Where the United States and Saudi Arabia are expected to see eye-to-eye on is deterring Iran, stabilizing Lebanon after the weakening of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and easing pressures on the new Syrian government.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was close to establishing ties with Israel two years ago, but he has since described the war in Gaza as a genocide, mirroring widespread public sentiment in the region about the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli airstrikes following the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Militants led by Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage that day, according to Israeli authorities. According to Gaza health authorities, more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.
It’s not clear if Saudi Arabia is willing to back alternative plans drawn up by Egypt, as they reject any plan that causes Palestinians to leave their land. If Hamas is still present on the ground and the threat of more Israeli attacks looms, it is unlikely that Arab Gulf states will invest billions into rebuilding Gaza. Hamas has called Trump’s plan ethnic cleansing.
This is Rubio’s first visit to the Middle East as secretary of state, and began with a stop in Israel. The negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire were pushed for by his team. On Monday, Israel sent a delegation to Cairo to prepare for those talks, just two weeks before the current ceasefire is set to expire. According to the ceasefire deal, which began Jan. 19, talks about the second phase were supposed to start Feb. 3.
Tammy Bruce said after Tuesday’s meeting that the pair had agreed to lay groundwork for future cooperation on matters of mutual interest and historic economic and investment opportunities that will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine. Bruce also noted that the U.S. and Russia would appoint “high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides.”
The U.S. team also includes national security adviser Mike Waltz and, notably, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff talked with Russian officials last week about a prisoner exchange that saw American teacher Marc Fogel freed.
Ushabaugh said it was a serious discussion on questions that both sides agreed were in the best interests of Washington and Moscow.
The sudden U.S.-Russian detente has stunned U.S. allies in Europe and Ukraine — with both expressing fear of being sidelined in talks that determine their collective futures.
The Kremlin’s Trouble with Moscow and the U.S. President Donald Trump’s America First Goal: a Resolution of the Russian “Hostage Diplomacy”
In a sign of the new spirit of cooperation, the Kremlin confirmed Monday it had approved the unilateral release of an American caught with a small amount of cannabis in his luggage at a Moscow airport earlier this month.
Basketball star Brittany Griner and the teacher Heather Fogel received lengthy prison sentences during the Biden years. They were among several Americans jailed by Russia on dubious charges in what the Biden administration said was a pattern of Russian “hostage diplomacy” to promote prisoner swaps.
“They say we should probably give territorial concessions — but what for?” said Lavrov. “So ethnic Russians who live there can be destroyed?” was alluding to the fact that Ukrainian troops have not been independently verified.
President Trump has publicly said any peace rested on Ukraine ending its NATO ambitions and relinquishing territory seized by Moscow — in essence ceding to two key Russian demands.
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, tells NPR he expects Trump’s America First agenda means the U.S. president has little interest in the specific terms of a settlement.
“Trump wants to end the war,” said Markov, adding that beyond that “the only thing which Trump is concerned about is his image. He has an image of being strong. He shouldn’t look like a loser.”
Putin has extended an invitation for Trump to visit Moscow in the near future. The gesture has caused speculation Trump could join Putin on Red Square this May — when Russia commemorates the 80th anniversary of its victory in another war: World War II.