https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/29/politics/trump-netanyahu-meeting-takeaways
Over the past few days, the Peace President has been busy establishing peace on four continents. The CIA carried out a drone strike on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela. As though attacking a large number of boats on the high seas, killing at least 107 sailors, and seizing two oil tankers, including one carrying oil to China, was not enough, US forces have started attacking the Venezuelan mainland.
On Sunday, Trump held a meeting with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, hoping for a breakthrough. Yet, despite polite exchanges, the US president repeated his default position in negotiations to pressure Kyiv to make concessions to President Putin and give up the areas that Russia has occupied.
President Trump said that Putin had been very good to Ukraine, but wants a final settlement so that he does not have to attack Ukraine again: “He (Putin) feels that, look, you know, they’re fighting to stop, and then if they have to start again, which is a possibility, he doesn’t want to be in that position. I understand that position.”
However, even that slim chance for peace was shattered when Russia claimed that Ukraine had attacked one of Putin’s residences, using dozens of drones. This has made Trump very angry, saying, “I don’t like it. It’s not good.” Russia has described the alleged drone attacks as a terrorist act, vowing to intensify the fighting.
Yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump for the sixth time during his second term. Despite some naïve expectations that Trump would put pressure on Netanyahu to observe the ceasefire and move towards the next phase of the “Peace Agreement”, Trump repeated all of Netanyahu’s talking points. As usual, Netanyahu engaged in some flattery and even pulled a rabbit out of the hat, saying he would award Trump Israel’s highest civilian excellence honour, which he was creating. “President Trump has broken so many conventions to surprise people, so we decided to break a convention or create a new one,” Netanyahu said.
Trump returned the compliment, saying, “The relationship’s been extraordinary.” Although Israel has been violating the ceasefire almost daily and has killed hundreds of Palestinians, Trump insisted that he was “not concerned” about Israel’s actions in the region. The lack of any understanding, let alone empathy, for the Palestinians by US officials is truly mind-boggling.
Presumably in response to the US’s sale of billions of dollars of weapons to Taiwan and the US siege of Venezuela, Chinese naval and air force units have encircled Taiwan with simulated strikes on maritime and aerial targets.
Meanwhile, on Christmas Day, Trump launched massive attacks on North-West Nigeria, allegedly to protect Christians from ISIS-affiliated groups, although most of the activities of those groups are concentrated on North-East Nigeria.
What can possibly go wrong? Happy New Year!
https://lnkd.in/eiXbiQNY
F Jahanpour 