America Must Stop Looking for Friends in Low Places in Eastern Europe and the Mideast
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Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign fund, initiated a campaign last fall to convince Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a man of peace.
In Mr. Dmitriev’s view, all that was needed to start singing Kumbaya was a business deal to end Mr. Putin’s special military operation in Ukraine. To get there, he dangled a 28-point peace plan that, if implemented, could be worth as much as $12 trillion to the United States.
Mr. Putin’s price tag?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must cede the Donbas and with it Ukraine’s security as well as the overall security of Eastern Europe.
We called out Mr. Dmitriev at the time, accusing him of setting out to dupe the American right about the Kremlin’s long-term peaceful intentions in Ukraine. He in turn accused us on X of being “warmongers” and “weirdos.”
Tragically, on Sunday, Mr. Putin yet again proved us right. Moscow unleashed a missile and drone attack on Kyiv that hit multiple cultural sites including the Pechersk Lavra monastery, a nearly 1,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site.
It was a genocidal attack. Mr. Putin is increasingly losing the war on the frontlines in Ukraine, and, as a result, he is now redoubling his effort to erase Ukrainian culture.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner ought to understand the United States cannot buy friends in low places. Instead, they must grasp that our nation’s enemies — including Mr. Dmitriev — are trying to buy them off by dangling postwar economic opportunities at the expense of short- and long-term U.S. national-security interests.
In the balance: Yet, despite Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner’s ongoing failure to achieve peace in Ukraine, they are using the same futile economic negotiating approach in Iran. Except this time, it is not Mr. Dmitriev who is dangling postwar deals to President Trump’s special Middle East allies; it is the Qataris.
Jerusalem, like Kyiv, will not subordinate its strategic national-security interests across the Middle East to facilitate postwar U.S. economic pacts.
Hezbollah is a dealbreaker for Israel. Ditto Iran’s long-range ballistic-missile and drone programs as well as Tehran’s insistence it can continue to enrich uranium.
Yet what is most vexing and self-defeating about Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner’s negotiating tactics is they typically involve alienating allies to position America to make money from its enemies. Perhaps “gold fever” and counting economic chickens before they are hatched explain this irrational behavior.
We witnessed the effects of this today at the G7 Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Trump praised the Qataris at the expense of the Emiratis, despite the United Arab Emirates conducting military strikes against Iran during the war.
While it is not $12 trillion, Mr. Trump did reveal Qatar’s cost of doing business with the United States. While meeting with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the president said Doha would be investing another $1 trillion in America.
Mr. Trump then lashed out at Israel, complaining its self-defense strikes against Iranian-backed Hezbollah were not helpful. Plus, as if to twist the knife deeper into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s back, the president stated Syria could do a better job of fighting the terrorist group than the Israelis.
Decision point: Qatar is simply fronting for Iran. Mr. Trump, whether he realizes it or not, is jeopardizing the United States’ long-term national-security interests to try to chase future economic deals that may or may not happen.
Perhaps Vice President JD Vance exemplified this blind spot best when he said Tuesday that America, by signing the Memorandum of Understanding, is extending a hand of friendship to Iran.
Really?
What has Iran done to deserve our friendship after 47 years of killing Americans and waging war against U.S. interests and allies across the Middle East?
Dollar signs are blinding Mr. Trump’s negotiating team in Iran, just as they did in Ukraine. It is high time to escort Messrs. Witkoff and Kushner from the White House and return the business of negotiating with Russia and Iran to Mr. Trump’s national-security team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
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