Advisor to the President's Office Mykhailo Podoliak reported that currently the political-military part of the peace talks is “on pause” due to the situation in the Middle East, while the humanitarian direction continues to work.
He said this on the air of the telethon “United News”.
“The president announced this, Mr. Budanov announced the possibility of continuing prisoner exchanges, and accordingly, this part of the work is ongoing. As for the global negotiation process, it is clear that until the events in the Middle East have finally put the dots over the i's, the war in Ukraine, the negotiations on the war in Ukraine, they are on hold. This is obvious because the key moderator (the USA — ed.) is just as interested in reaching some decisions on Iran, first of all,” said Podoliak.
He noted that the parties now have a different status quo, which will affect the negotiation process. According to him, the results of the war in the Middle East will either add “reputational components” to the United States or, conversely, “minus them.”
“The reputational component of Russia in the Middle East, I will remind you that Russia was perceived as a partner, I mean Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, they all perceived this conflict as incomprehensible, the conflict as they called it in Ukraine, as incomprehensible, it is unclear who is there, what and who is to blame, and so on,” the OPU advisor noted.
Podoliak explained that for the countries of the Middle East, Russia “is a player on the side of Iran,” which causes significant damage to businesses, civilians, and infrastructure in the region. In his opinion, because of this, the attitude towards Russia “is irreversibly changing in this region.”
“The attitude towards Russia in the Middle East has changed significantly, and now it is catastrophically completing this evolution from a neutral-positive attitude there to an openly negative attitude, the same in Latin America, the same in parts of Africa… And the attitude towards Ukraine has also changed, Ukraine's subjectivity has significantly increased, right? And therefore, this will also have an impact on our negotiating position,” said Podoliak.