Ukraine is just one part of Trump’s Great Game

For Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, it’s a case of today Ukraine, tomorrow the world. In their much-hyped telephone call this week, the Russian leader didn’t appear to give much away: a step towards a sort-of ceasefire, a prisoner swap and a few other bits and bobs. But Putin knows that Trump wants a lot more than just an agreement on the Donbas. Settling the most significant conflict in Europe since the second world war is merely a prelude to a much bigger deal in the Holy Land, a truly historic arrangement that could satisfy the Donald’s desire to be thought of as a peace legend.

That’s why Trump sent Steve Witkoff, his special envoy to the Middle East, to Moscow to pre-negotiate with Putin last week. It struck many as odd that, as Witkoff, Putin and Trump jawed about stopping war in Ukraine, renewed hostilities broke out between Israel and Hamas and Trump ordered a new bombing campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

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Yet it makes sense. Because the Ukraine war is just one part of the new Great Game of the 21st century, which is now centred on the Middle East. On Sunday, the Russia-Ukraine-US ceasefire talks resume in Jeddah, and the host, Saudi Arabia, is emerging as a more important power-broker than Britain, say, or France, never mind Brussels. Keir Starmer wants credit for persuading Ukraine to accept Trump’s initial ceasefire proposal, but it was Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, who really turned Volodymyr Zelensky’s head by offering Ukraine a multi-billion investment scheme.

Trump and Putin may have spent most of their 90-minute call wrangling over energy plants on the Dnipro river or naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea, but the subject of Iran seems to have been at least equally important.