CIA Director Seeking a Foreign Policy Win in Face of Trump’s Humiliation ‘On-all-fronts!’

In the wake of setbacks over Iran, stalled Middle East diplomacy, and hollow peacemaking claims, Donald Trump is scrambling for any foreign policy win he can claim—real or manufactured.

Trump holds no winning cards. Any attempt to force or coerce Moscow into enforcing American trade restrictions would demand massive concessions elsewhere—major shifts on European security or relief from existing U.S. sanctions on Russia itself. Moscow has little incentive to compromise over Iran, a key strategic partner.

Yet more may be in play. The Trump administration’s so-called unwavering support for Ukraine looms large. Ukraine is the issue where Moscow wants something from Washington; Iran is the issue where Washington wants something even more urgently from Moscow. That makes CIA Director John Ratcliffe a particularly logical emissary.

After all, the administration’s better-known diplomatic operators—Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—have had decidedly mixed results, while Trump’s inner circle has hardly demonstrated a unified or coherent approach to negotiations with either Moscow or Tehran.

If the objective was to explore an arrangement too sensitive, too deniable, or simply too politically awkward for conventional diplomacy, the CIA’s back channel offers obvious advantages.

Ratcliffe, unlike the administration’s more conspicuous envoys, can talk to Russian intelligence without pretending that every conversation constitutes a formal diplomatic initiative. His established relationship with Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR, makes the choice even less mysterious.

And that may be the point. If Washington wants Moscow to do something about Iran, Moscow presumably wants Washington to do something about Ukraine. The question is whether there is a bargain........

© New Eastern Outlook