The President's Daily Brief
February 19th, 2025: Russia Plays Hardball In Riyadh & Iran Vows Another Attack On Israel
19 Feb 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Russia is playing hardball in negotiations with the U.S. over ending the war in Ukraine, demanding the West abandon Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and rejecting NATO peacekeepers. Iran is vowing another direct attack on Israel while taunting the U.S. over its nuclear program—what’s behind Tehran’s latest threats? Hamas says it will return the bodies of four hostages, including the youngest victims of October 7th, but what does this move signal? And in today’s Back of the Brief: North Korea is making bold new promises to expand its nuclear arsenal, dismissing U.S. efforts to curb its ambitions. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Wednesday, 19 February. 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. Today, we're starting with the negotiations between the US and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine. Now, Moscow appears to be playing hardball.
There's a surprise demanding that the West scrap Ukraine's NATO ambitions and rejecting any talk of NATO peacekeepers. Oh, is that all you want, Putin? We'll examine Russia's stated position, which essentially appears to be that they get what they want and Ukraine doesn't. Later in the show, Iran is vowing yet another attack on Israel, while Tehran claims that the U.S.
and Israel, quote, can't do a damn thing to stop its nuclear ambitions. Okay, well, technically, that's not correct. The question is whether the U.S. and Israel have the political will to do a damn thing regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions. We'll tell you what's behind the Iranian regime's threats.
Plus, more hostage news in Israel, as Hamas says it's returning the bodies of four hostages, including the youngest victims of the brutal 7 October attacks. And in today's Back of the Brief, North Korea, we haven't heard from them for a short while. Well, they're making bold new promises to expand their nuclear arsenal, brushing off U.S. denuclearization efforts. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
Senior US and Russian officials convened Tuesday in the capital of Saudi Arabia, that would be Riyadh, for landmark talks on reviving their diplomatic and economic ties and bringing the Putin regime's war on Ukraine to an end. But Moscow is already playing hardball, using the discussions to escalate their demands regarding a potential settlement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov led the Kremlin's delegation opposite U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Both Rubio and Lavrov said the initial discussions, which lasted nearly five hours, proved productive and that both sides listened to each other's concerns. That's nice.
That's according to a report from Reuters. Witkoff was even more effusive, describing the talks as positive, upbeat and constructive. That sounds downright chummy. Adding, quote, everybody was there to get to the right outcome, end quote. Well, yeah, the invading country, that would be Russia, is certainly there to get what they would like.
Rubio told reporters that they agreed to pursue three broad goals restoring staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, exploring economic cooperation and, of course, pursuing high level negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
But Rubio stressed that the talks served only as a starting point and that the road to achieving these ambitious goals would be a long one, particularly after more than three years of frozen diplomacy due to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
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