December 31st, 2024: Russia Rejects Trump’s Peace Deal & Hamas Chief Assassination Details
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What key parts of Trump's peace deal did Russia reject?
It's Tuesday, 31 December, which, as you may have heard, is New Year's Eve. We're on the cusp of 2025. And what are the odds that the new year could be as wacky as 2024? Probably pretty good odds. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start today with reports that the Kremlin has turned down critical parts of a peace deal pitched by Donald Trump and his incoming administration. We'll have those details later in the show. We'll shift our focus to Gaza, where hopes for a ceasefire and hostage deal have seemingly gone up in smoke again. Plus, we've got new details about the operation that took out Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh as Israel, for the first time, admits its role in the assassination. And in today's Back of the Brief. Oh, look, we're wrapping up 2024, and it's the return of Little Rocket Man. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced plans to adopt strict anti-U.S.
measures in the weeks leading up to Donald Trump's inauguration. Hmm. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. President-elect Trump has perhaps been dealt a setback regarding his hopes for a quick compromise with the Putin regime to end Russia's war on Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected proposals on Monday that have recently been floated by Trump and members of his national security team on how to achieve a lasting peace in Eastern Europe, saying the Kremlin was, quote, not satisfied with numerous elements of the president-elect's plans, That's according to a report from Newsweek. Oh, so the invading regime that's carried out a three-year war against a neighboring country and is currently losing upwards of 1,500 Russian soldiers a day in the conflict isn't satisfied. Well, that is a shame. As a reminder, Trump began outlining his plans for bringing the war in Ukraine to a quick conclusion in an interview with Time magazine earlier this month.
While there are apparently multiple ideas being floated by Trump's advisers at this time. They include proposals to block Ukraine from joining NATO for at least 20 years, temporarily ceding portions of Ukrainian territory to Russia, and deploying a European-led coalition of ground troops in Ukraine to keep the peace. While no official proposals have been communicated to Moscow by Trump's transition team, Lavrov told reporters on Monday that the Kremlin doesn't like what they've heard so far. Again, what a shame. Lavrov said, quote, We're not happy, of course, with the proposals made by members of the Trump team to postpone Ukraine's admission to Ukraine for 20 years and to station British and European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, end quote.
He claimed Trump's plan amounts to freezing hostilities along the current lines of engagement and transferring further responsibility for confronting Russia to the Europeans. Lavrov countered by calling for the incoming Trump administration to pursue, quote, reliable and legally binding agreements that would eliminate the root causes of the conflict and seal a mechanism precluding the possibility of their violation, end quote. Yeah, not quite sure what all that means. Basically, Russia has no interest in participating in a more limited ceasefire that would allow Ukraine to eventually pursue NATO membership and potentially put them on a path towards regaining their lost territory. The remarks come in the wake of an end of year address given by Russian President Putin, who claimed he was ready to participate in possible peace talks with Trump once he returns to office. But Putin also said that any deal must be long-lasting and listed a litany of preconditions, including that any negotiations should be based on the failed Istanbul talks from 2022.
As a reminder, those talks produced a draft treaty that would prohibit Ukraine from ever joining NATO, bar them from hosting foreign weapons, require sweeping reductions in their military forces, and have Kiev officially cede Crimea and parts of the Donbass region to Russia. Oh, and Putin also said he wants a pony. At the time, Ukrainian officials rejected the one-sided proposal.
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