Now, why in the world would soon-to-be President Donald Trump want to know where Vladamir Putin’s head is at regarding untangling from Iran? This “explosive” report from the Washington Post describes a Seychelles meeting set up between a Trump ally and Putin people:
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would likely require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. [Emphasis added.]
So Donald Trump wants Russia to get out of Syria and stop palling around with Iran and wants to see what it’d take to make that happen? That sounds like a good thing, right?
Why are people crowing about a “smoking gun” here?
WaPo SCOOP: Blackwater founder Erik Prince held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel https://t.co/TBdvxNkeUk
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) April 3, 2017
One Twitter commenter asked why Trump’s people would bother nine days before he’s elected when it would be fine in a week and change. That question is yet to be answered but again, this seems like a lot of noise about something that’s not a big deal and more importantly, shows an interest by the incoming Trump administration in decoupling two of the world’s worst states.
The Obama administration aided and abetted both Russia and Iran. There was money. And then there was the general weakness Obama displayed which allowed Vladamir Putin to gather strength everywhere.
