Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday that the United States wants Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace deal that ends the war by June, before Trump pivots to focusing on the U.S. midterm elections. Zelenskyy also said that the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi had changed its rhetoric last week, and instead of just getting into “historical arguments” conducted a “concrete” discussion on what it is ready to do. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.  

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Ukrainian and Russian leaders need to meet in person to hash out the hardest remaining issues in peace talks, and that only US President Donald Trump has the power to bring about an agreement to end the four-year-old war.

Sybiha said that from the 20-point peace plan, which formed the basis of recent trilateral negotiations, only “a few” items remain outstanding, but the “most sensitive and most difficult” have to be dealt with at the leaders’ level.

Sybiha added that in the event of a ceasefire deal, the US has told Ukraine that it was prepared to ratify security guarantees in Congress, and that it would then provide a security “backstop” to support the peace deal, though no US troops would be deployed on the ground in Ukraine.

Sybiha also said that other countries beyond France and the United Kingdom had confirmed their readiness to send troops to Ukraine as a deterrence force if an agreement is reached."

"The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships will be sent to the Middle East from the Caribbean and are not expected to return until late April or early May, according to four U.S. officials. The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf. John Ismay and Eric Schmitt report for the New York Times.  

President Trump will announce a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and provide details on plans for a U.N.-authorized stabilization force in Gaza at the first formal meeting of his “Board of Peace” next week, two senior U.S. officials said yesterday. Delegations from at least 20 countries are expected to attend the meeting in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel has joined the board. Steve Holland reports for Reuters. "

"Russian and Ukrainian envoys are set to engage in a new round of United States-brokered talks next week in Geneva as the war approaches the four-year mark with no apparent compromises on territory in sight.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the trilateral talks, which follow two earlier rounds in Abu Dhabi, would be held on February 17-18, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

The new round of negotiations was confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn.

As fighting continues along the roughly 1,250-kilometre (750-mile) front line, with Moscow keeping up its assault on Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv launching long-range attacks on war-related targets like oil refineries, the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland remains a major bone of contention.

Russia is pushing for Ukraine to pull out of the fifth of the eastern Donetsk region in the Donbas that it still controls. Ukraine, for its part, has rejected a unilateral pull-back and wants Western security guarantees to deter Russia from re-launching its offensive if a ceasefire is reached.

Zelenskyy said last week that the US had given the warring parties a June deadline to reach a deal, though US President Donald Trump’s previous ultimatums have not resulted in a breakthrough."

Another group of 18 F-35 fighter jets, together with several tankers, arrived in the Middle East yesterday, according to open-source flight radar data. 

The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran, according to two U.S. officials, in what would become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the two countries. Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali report for Reuters."

Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that Iran had failed to acknowledge core U.S. demands during yesterday’s talks. Vance told reporters that the talks had not yielded any breakthrough, adding that military action against Iran remained an option. “In some ways, it went well - they agreed to meet afterwards. But in other ways, it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge,” Vance said. Laurence Norman and Benoit Faucon report for the Wall Street Journal. "

Senior national security officials told Trump that the U.S. military is ready for potential strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday, sources told CBS News. Trump has not yet made a final decision about whether to strike Iran, officials said, describing the conversations around Iran as fluid and ongoing. One source said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in about two weeks for further discussions. Jennifer Jacobs and James LaPorta report.

Trump’s “Board of Peace” will gather today in Washington for its inaugural meeting that will focus on reconstruction and building an international stabilization force in Gaza. More than 40 countries and the EU have confirmed they will send officials to the meeting, according to a U.S. official. Germany, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland are among dozens of countries that have not joined the board but are expected to attend as observers. Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee report for AP News.  

The U.N. Security Council held a meeting yesterday on the ceasefire deal and Israel’s efforts to expand control in the West Bank. The U.N. meeting was meant to go ahead today, but was moved after Trump announced the board’s meeting. “We are hearing the chattering class criticizing the structure of the board, that it’s unconventional, that it’s unprecedented,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the council. “Again, the old ways were not working.” Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee report for AP News.  

Hamas continues to hold influence over key power structures in Gaza, placing loyalists in government roles, collecting taxes, and paying salaries, according to an Israeli military assessment seen by Reuters and sources in Gaza. Hamas has recently named five district governors, all of them with links to its armed al-Qassam Brigades, two Palestinian sources said. Hamas has said it is ready to hand over administration of Gaza to the U.S.-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats headed by Ali Shaath, adding that Israel has not yet allowed committee members to enter Gaza. Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell report. "

Trump yesterday announced that the United States would contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace during the board’s first meeting in Washington. Trump did not say where the money would come from or whether Congress had been consulted. Trump also announced $7 billion in pledges from nine other member countries to rebuild Gaza. Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania said they would commit peacekeeping troops to Gaza, while Egypt and Jordan have committed troops to train police. Yesterday’s meeting provided few details about how Hamas can be disarmed or when Israel might fully withdraw from Gaza. Michael Crowley reports for the New York Times; Sophia Cai and Eli Stokols report for POLITICO.  

Trump also said that in the future, “the Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the board was formed because the “Gaza situation was impossible to solve under orthodoxy,” while adding, “We hope that this can serve as a model for other complex and difficult situations.” Michael Crowley reports for the New York Times."

Edit to add:

"Trump has told Congress that he is pursuing a civil nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia that does not include non-proliferation safeguards,according to a copy of the document sent to Congress in November. Arms control groups and congressmen have repeatedly insisted that any agreement come with guardrails, including a provision preventing Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel - both potential pathways to weapons. However, the report seems to open the way to Saudi Arabia having an enrichment program as it refers to “additional safeguards and verification measures to the most sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation” between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Timothy Gardner and Jonathan Landay report for Reuters. "

"U.S. and Iranian negotiators are set to meet in Geneva on Thursday, and the United States is expecting to receive a draft proposal on Tuesday before the meeting, according to a senior U.S. official. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS yesterday that he is still working on the proposal and political leadership in Tehran has yet to sign off. Araghchi said on Friday during an interview that the U.S. side had not asked for zero enrichment of uranium during negotiations so far. A White House official contested this, saying President Trump had been clear that Iran could not have the capacity to enrich uranium. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Pranav Baskar reports for the New York Times.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that both sides remain sharply divided following the first two rounds of talks. However, the official said that Iran has offered concessions since last week, including possibly sending half of its enriched uranium abroad, diluting the rest, and taking part in creating a regional enrichment consortium. Iran would do this in return for U.S. recognition of Iran’s right to “peaceful nuclear enrichment” under a deal that would also lift economic sanctions. Parisa Hafezi reports.

Trump is leaning towards conducting an initial strike in the coming days, intended to show Iran that they must agree to give up the ability to make nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said. Possible targets include Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, the country’s nuclear sites, and the ballistic missile program. Trump told his advisers that if this failed to sway Tehran, he would leave open the possibility of a military assault later this year intended to topple Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Julian E. Barnes, David E. Sanger, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt report for the New York Times. 

Satellite imagery captured on Friday shows more than 60 attack aircraft parked at U.S. military base Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan, roughly tripling the number of jets that are normally there. The images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 jets, than normally seen there. At least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, according to flight tracking data. Riley Mellen, Christoph Koettl, and Eric Schmitt report for the New York Times.

EU top diplomats, including EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, are set to meet with Nikolay Mladenov, the director of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Brussels today. “We want to be part of the peace process in Gaza and also contribute with what we have,” Kallas said. Only Hungary and Bulgaria are full members of the board. 12 other EU nations sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington last week. Sam McNeil reports for AP News.  

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Friday in an interview with Tucker Carlson that Israel has a right to much of the Middle East according to Genesis Chapter 15 in the Bible. When asked if it would be ok for Israel to take this land, Huckabee said, “It would be fine if they took it all.” Following Huckabee’s interview, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, and the Palestinian Authority issued a joint statement calling Huckabee’s remarks “dangerous and inflammatory.” A U.S. embassy spokesperson said yesterday that Huckabee’s comments were taken out of context and that there is no change to U.S. policies on Israel. Melanie Lidman and Samy Magdy report for AP News. "

"President Trump said yesterday that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine believed that any military action ordered against Iran would be “something easily won.” However, sources said that Caine told Trump that carrying out a small or medium strike on Iran would carry a high risk of U.S. casualties and that such an operation would have a negative effect on U.S. weapon stockpiles. Caine has also said that the operations under consideration in Iran would be more difficult than the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month. Two sources told Axiosthat Caine was particularly concerned about becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict. Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times; Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report.

Iran is close to a deal with China to purchase anti-ship cruise missiles, according to six sources, though no delivery date has been agreed. The supersonic missiles have a range of about 290 kilometres and are designed to evade shipborne defenses flying flow and fast. Gavin Finch, Parisa Hafezi, and John Irish report for Reuters.  

Officials working with Trump’s “Board of Peace” are exploring setting up a stablecoin for Gaza, according to five sources. Work on the idea is being led by Liran Tancman, an Israeli tech entrepreneur and former reservist, who is now working as an unpaid adviser for the board, two sources said. One source said the stablecoin was expected to be tied to the U.S. dollar. Another source said the idea behind the initiative was to “dry Gaza from cash so Hamas can’t generate any.” Some people expressed concerns that a stablecoin could be used to further detach the economies of Gaza and the West Bank. James Shotter and Neri Zilber report for the Financial Times. "