• Russia
• Ukraine
• Rishi Iyengar
• John Haltiwanger

August 7, 2025, 6:05 PM

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where, like U.S. President Donald Trump, we also occasionally enjoy walking around our office rooftop area.

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: Unpacking U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s fifth trip to Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial Gaza takeover proposal, and a new U.S. tariff on semiconductors.

Trump’s Mr. Fix It Goes to Moscow

It often seems as though Steve Witkoff is doing everything, everywhere, all at once. Trump initially tapped Witkoff to be his special envoy to the Middle East. But it wasn’t long before Witkoff—who some view as the de facto secretary of state—was spearheading diplomatic talks for the Trump administration on an array of other issues, including Ukraine.

Witkoff traveled to Moscow this week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Trump administration continues to push for a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Trump, who reentered the White House in January confident that he could quickly end the war, has grown impatient with Putin as Russia has continued to pummel Ukraine with airstrikes. Witkoff’s visit to Russia came ahead of a Friday deadline Trump set for Moscow to stop the war or face new sanctions.

Trump said “great progress” was made during Witkoff’s meeting with Putin, but there did not appear to be any major breakthroughs, and secondary sanctions are still expected to be implemented against Russia on Friday. Moscow is now pushing for a meeting between Trump and Putin, but it’s unclear if that will happen. In short, a Ukraine peace deal remains elusive.

This is part of a broader trend when it comes to the issues Witkoff has been the Trump administration’s point man on.

Witkoff is Trump’s “Mr. Fix It,” and the president has placed an unparalleled level of trust in him to tackle a number of the globe’s most intractable problems, from the Iran nuclear issue to Israel’s war in Gaza to the Russia-Ukraine war and more. But how much has Witkoff actually fixed?

Mixed record. Witkoff did help secure a six-week cease-fire in Gaza that began back in January. But that truce collapsed in March, and Witkoff has been unsuccessful in subsequent efforts for a new cease-fire deal.

Witkoff also played a key role in facilitating a U.S. truce with the Houthis in Yemen and securing the release of an American imprisoned in Russia as well as an Israeli American hostage held by Hamas. Hostage families in Israel have also given Witkoff a lot of credit for the attention he’s given to them and the mission of bringing their loved ones home from Gaza.

In a recent meeting, Witkoff reportedly told hostage families that he’s working on a plan to end the war in Gaza and facilitate the return of all hostages. But given that Israel just announced plans to fully occupy the territory, it appears increasingly unlikely that the conflict will end in the near future—and there are concerns that expanding the Israeli military’s footprint will endanger those hostages still held alive by Hamas.

Witkoff was also tasked with leading nuclear talks with Iran. In the midst of those discussions, Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran that culminated with the United States bombing key Iranian nuclear sites. There’s still no nuclear agreement, and it’s up in the air whether Tehran will reenter talks with Washington.

In over his head? Witkoff’s role in the Trump administration is unorthodox for a number of reasons, including the fact that his background is in real estate and he has no prior experience in government or diplomacy.

Critics of Witkoff have warned that he’s in over his head and has been given responsibility over complicated issues that would be better handled by career diplomats and experts. They’ve emphasized that Witkoff appears too easily manipulated by Putin in particular, and raised alarm over the Trump envoy echoing the Kremlin’s talking points.

But Trump, who’s embraced a transactional approach to foreign affairs, views Witkoff as a skilled dealmaker. The president’s reliance on Witkoff is indicative of his tendency to value loyalty over expertise, as well as his willingness to break from tradition in Washington.

Still, given Trump’s mercurial nature—and his history of falling out with top aides—it’s hard not to wonder whether the president will grow impatient with the lack of progress Witkoff has made on some of the bigger issues the administration is prioritizing, especially a Russia-Ukraine deal.

“The pressure’s been on President Putin for a while now. President Trump is trying to ratchet that up … but this is now Witkoff’s fifth trip to Moscow, and I think the pressure is on Witkoff as well to come back with something other than an empty hand,” Torrey Taussig, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told SitRep.

Notable Obit

Dame Stella Rimington, the first woman to lead the British intelligence agency MI5, died on Sunday, the agency announced. She was 90.

Rimington first joined the agency in 1969 and served as its director-general from 1992 to 1996 before retiring. As multiple obituaries noted, she was widely considered to be the inspiration for the character M—played by Dame Judi Dench—in the James Bond films.

“As the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership,” Ken McCallum, the current MI5 director-general, said in a statement.

On the Button

What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.

Netanyahu’s Gaza takeover ambitions. Despite rapidly growing global outrage at Israel’s war in Gaza and pressure over what the United Nations describes as “mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Thursday that his government plans to take over the territory entirely.

“We intend to, in order to ensure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza, and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.

The Israeli military has said it already controls about 75 percent of Gaza’s territory, with most of Gaza’s 2 million residents clustered into the remaining 25 percent.

Netanyahu’s takeover plan is unpopular even within Israel, with the country’s military chief as well as Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid warning against it, but it has broad support among the far-right Israeli political parties holding Netanyahu’s coalition government together.

Iran sanctions update. The United States slapped new sanctions on Iran for the second time in two weeks, this time targeting the country’s financial sector. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday announced that it was sanctioning 18 Iranian entities that “play pivotal roles in the Iranian regime’s efforts to generate revenue and circumvent U.S. sanctions.”

Foremost among those is the RUNC Exchange System Company, which OFAC said helped develop the country’s international bank messaging system that the Iranian regime uses to trade outside its borders. The department also sanctioned three of RUNC’s seniormost leaders.

Other sanctioned entities include an offshore bank located off Iran’s southern coast in the Persian Gulf and a financial software company that the Trump administration accused of working with the Iranian government to “develop surveillance technologies for the Iranian police state.”

Last week, the Treasury Department imposed what it called the “largest” sanctions on Iran since 2018, targeting an Iranian shipping network critical to the country’s oil exports.

Chip tariffs. Trump dropped yet another trade bombshell on Wednesday, telling reporters at the White House that his administration planned to impose a “tariff of approximately 100 percent on chips and semiconductors.”

He added one important caveat, however, with an acknowledgment to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was standing next to him, to announce the company’s new $100 billion investment in the United States. (Cook also gifted Trump a Kentucky-made glass trophy bearing the Apple logo atop a base made out of 24-karat gold.)

“But the good news for companies like Apple is if you’re building in the United States, or have without question committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge,” Trump added. It is not yet clear to what extent Trump’s statement is official policy, or when the tariff on semiconductors will go into effect, though an announcement could reportedly come as soon as next week.

Snapshot

Family and friends of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen carry his body to the cemetery during his funeral in Umm al-Kheir, West Bank, on Aug. 7.Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

Hot Mic

“Our effort is to clearly realize that trade is trade and other discussions are other discussions. We have no intention to pause other aspects of the relationship,” a senior Indian official told reporters (including your SitRep co-author) in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, addressing Trump’s decision to raise total U.S. tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent in the coming weeks, in part over India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.

The trade rupture is a major downer in what has otherwise been a rather strong bilateral partnership for over two decades across multiple administrations on both sides, and New Delhi appears keen to stress that things are otherwise hunky-dory when it comes to areas such as defense and technology. “The relationship in all other areas of cooperation continues apace,” the official said.

Put on Your Radar

Tuesday, Aug. 12: Trump’s 90-day pause of higher tariffs on Chinese goods expires. The two sides agreed to keep discussing a further extension during their bilateral trade meeting in Stockholm last month, but it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.

We’re also watching for a possible meeting between Trump and Putin, which could take place sometime next week.

Quote of the Week

“These tools serve as a deterrent to prevent other nations from using certain biological agents.”

—Chris Meekins, a health official in the first Trump administration, speaking out against current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to end $500 million worth of U.S. government investments in mRNA vaccines, calling it a “national security vulnerability.”

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