MLB TTK

🇦🇪|The Circus in Abu Dhabi: Three Men Who Owe Their Fortunes to the Gulf Are Negotiating a War They Have No Mandate to End. The table in Abu Dhabi has Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the UAE Foreign Minister on one side. Read the guest list against the financial disclosure forms. Who Is Sitting at the Table Jared Kushner runs Affinity Partners. The firm's capital: $2 billion** from Saudi Arabia's **Public Investment Fund**, approved in **2021** over the objections of the PIF's own advisers. Add money from **Lunate**, an Abu Dhabi fund, and from Qatari sovereign entities. Kushner was the architect of the **Abraham Accords** and is the son-in-law of the President. He has no diplomatic credential beyond the family tie. He has a **$2 billion Gulf-funded investment firm and a seat at a table negotiating the fate of Ukraine. Steve Witkoff is a real estate developer and Trump's golf partner. He has no diplomatic background. He was in Moscow meeting Vladimir Putin while the war was running. He was in the room when Trump spoke to Putin. He is not a career Foreign Service officer, not a regional specialist, not a treaty negotiator. He is a man whose qualification is a friendship. The UAE Foreign Minister represents a state that hosts Al Dhafra Air Base (24.25°N 54.55°E), the US F-35 and ISR hub, and Jebel Ali port, the largest US military logistics node in the Gulf. The UAE is on the Zero Hour target list. An Emirati aircraft flew into Tehran and departed unannounced. Anwar Gargash, adviser to the President, said publicly: "Confidence has been shaken." The host of the talks is a state calculating its own exposure. What They Are Actually Negotiating Not the end of the war. The collateral. The minerals deal signed in April 2025 gives the United States a 50 per cent share of revenue from every newly issued Ukrainian mineral, oil, and gas extraction licence, through a fund managed jointly by the US International Development Finance Corporation and Ukraine's PPP Agency. Trump's own description, July 2026: "We can go in there at any time we want to take pretty much whatever we want. That was a pretty good deal." The frozen Russian assets: roughly €210 billion at Euroclear in Belgium. The EU has taxed the windfall profits at 99.7 per cent and transferred the proceeds to Kyiv. A €90 billion loan has been approved with two-thirds earmarked for weapons. Belgium has blocked outright confiscation, citing international law and Euroclear's exposure to Russian legal retaliation. The principal is immobilised. The legal basis for taking it is being constructed. That is the negotiation. Who holds the claim on the minerals. Who takes the principal on the frozen assets. Who pays for the reconstruction. Ukraine is the collateral. The men at the table in Abu Dhabi are not negotiating Ukraine's future. They are negotiating the title deed. The Precedent They Are Burying The deal that would have ended the war was on the table in Istanbul in April 2022. Ukraine's written proposals included neutral, non-aligned status and a pledge not to host foreign weapons, including nuclear arms. Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv on 9 April 2022. Yulia Mendel, Zelensky's former press secretary, said Johnson "intervened and influenced Zelensky, saying he could become a hero and could continue this war." David Arakhamia, head of the Ukrainian delegation, said Johnson told them: "We won't sign anything with them at all." The neutrality that Witkoff and Kushner are now discussing was on offer four years ago. It was destroyed by a British prime minister acting on instructions from Washington and London. The men in Abu Dhabi are negotiating the terms that were available before hundreds of thousands of dead. The Body Count Behind the Table Zelensky: 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed, down from 55,000 he cited earlier, a revision in the wrong direction for a casualty count. The Economist: 1.4 to 2.1 million Russian casualties, 374,000 to 770,000 killed. CSIS: 1.4 million Russian casualties, 400,000 to 450,000 killed, and a ratio of Russian to Ukrainian losses in the first half of 2026 of roughly 8 to 1. Mediazona: 7,983 named Russian officers confirmed dead by 6 November 2026. Total: upwards of 2 million casualties between the two armies. The men negotiating in Abu Dhabi did not pay that bill. The Ukrainians and the Russians did. The American Political File JD Vance published a post-mortem admitting the war lost the midterms, quoting his own pollster's finding that the top four reasons Trump 2024 voters abandoned the ticket were end the war, cost of living, America First, and change the relationship with Israel. Donald Trump Jr. reposted it: "Every word of this is 100% correct." Marco Rubio is reportedly preparing to resign and run for president, separating his brand from the war. While those reports circulated, he was in Jamnagar, Gujarat on 21 October, meeting Mukesh Ambani about routing Venezuelan crude through Reliance's refinery to fix the diesel prices the war caused. Pete Hegseth is under prediction of dismissal from Mohsen Rezaei. Admiral Brad Cooper is mocked as a podcast host by the IRGC spokesman and the Foreign Ministry. An administration that lost both chambers over the war, whose officials are leaving or under prediction of removal, is now sending two men with no diplomatic credentials to negotiate the end of that war in a Gulf capital that hosts the base the war runs from. The Venue Is the Tell Abu Dhabi is not Geneva. It is not Vienna. It is not a neutral capital with a treaty secretariat and a permanent negotiating team. Abu Dhabi is a Gulf monarchy that hosts US bases, that is on the Zero Hour target list, whose adviser said "confidence has been shaken," and whose aircraft flew to Tehran unannounced. It is a state that is renegotiating its own exposure while hosting the talks that will determine whether the war ends. The UAE is not mediating. The UAE is protecting itself. The Bill Witkoff. Kushner. The UAE Foreign Minister. Three men. Two with no diplomatic credential. One representing a state calculating its own risk. Affinity Partners: $2 billion from the Saudi PIF, plus Lunate and Qatari money. Kushner's firm. Kushner's seat. The minerals deal: 50 per cent of new Ukrainian extraction revenue. Trump: "take pretty much whatever we want." €210 billion at Euroclear. 99.7 per cent windfall tax. €90 billion loan, two-thirds weapons. Belgium blocking confiscation. Istanbul 2022: the deal was on the table. Boris Johnson said no. Mendel and Arakhamia confirmed it. 2 million casualties between the armies. 50,000 Ukrainian dead per Zelensky. 7,983 named Russian officers per Mediazona. Vance conceded. Trump Jr. endorsed it. Rubio leaving. Hegseth predicted to fall. Cooper a podcast host. The circus is in Abu Dhabi because the men who run it cannot hold the show in a capital where they would have to answer questions. The negotiators owe their fortunes to the Gulf. The venue owes its security to the bases. The deal is the title deed. The bill was paid by the dead. Khallas.