President Joe Biden began his term by proclaiming that “diplomacy is back,” but White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted Thursday that neither he nor his administration was involved in diplomacy to end the Russian war in Ukraine.
Asked by a foreign journalist at the White House press briefing to describe whether Biden was involved in talks between Russia and Ukraine, Psaki could only respond that he was “leading” efforts to impose international sanctions on Russia.
This, she argued, would strengthen Ukraine’s hand in ongoing negotiations with Russia to end the war. However, she then downplayed the significance of those talks, saying the U.S. was concerned that Russia had not yet “de-escalated” militarily.
The talks are reportedly being led by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose foreign minister has criticized Russia but who has refrained from joining international condemnation of the Russian invasion. Israel has a significant proportion of Russian-born citizens, and relies on links with Russia to avoid conflict when it attacks Iranian targets in Iran.
The New York Times summarized: “The Israeli government has tried to maintain good relations with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders during the current crisis, and Mr. Bennett was previously asked by Mr. Zelensky to mediate between the sides.”
But Biden, who called Putin a “war criminal” on Wednesday, seems to have relegated the U.S. to, at best, a supporting role.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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