What does Donald Trump mean for Middle East peace?

If John Kerry was trying to defend the Obama administration's record on the Middle East with his speech then Donald Trump was already starting to build a record of his own on Twitter.

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The President-elect, ignoring transition niceties to lambast the current White House for its attitude to Israel, wrote: "We cannot let Israel be treated with such disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S but not anymore".

He went on: "Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!"

:: US hits out at Israel on Middle East peace

Those last words might be welcomed by many Israelis but will sound very much like a warning to those who wonder just how far Trump will go in his backing for Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
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Could he turn long-standing US policy on its head with active support for Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem? Settlements which are not only illegal but many regard as morally corrupt, standing in the way of a a two-state solution and ultimately peace.

Certainly Mr Trump had no hesitation denouncing a recent UN resolution demanding an end to such settlements.

The US declined to use its veto as a permanent member and so the resolution passed. It may have no real practical effect but it sent out a powerful message that Israel is at odds with the international community.

Kerry's speech was meant to build on that, isolating Israel further in the hope of reviving negotiations with the Palestinians.

What hope of that come January, with a President-elect, who is already indicating he has got Netanyahu's back?
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President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel! @IvankaTrump@DonaldJTrumpJr https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/814114980983427073 …
10:24 PM - 28 Dec 2016

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The Israeli leader even tweeted Trump saying: "President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear cut-support for Israel".

And then there's Trump's pick for US Ambassador to Israel who has long-backed settlements and whose views are sometimes said to be the right of Netanyahu.

David Friedman has been dismissive of the effort to pursue a two-state solution and welcomed plans to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with the words "Israel's eternal capital". Hardly the language of a diplomat given Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital.

Friedman's appointment may send a hopeful message to Israelis and the Jewish community in America, especially after the increasingly difficult relationship between Obama and Netanyahu, but what does it say to Palestinians, to Arab nations, to countries and leaders around the world who oppose Israel's settlement activities and for decades had US support for that?

The deal-maker Donald Trump openly admitted in an interview recently that he has his eye on the most elusive prize of all-an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

"That's the ultimate deal," he told a newspaper.

His actions and appointments in the days before he becomes President will raise questions about whether it would be a fair deal for all.

Vladimir Putin had a strategy in Syria - the United States did not

Flanked by his foreign and his defence minister, in one of the awkwardly staged "conversations" Vladimir Putin has made his own form of theatre, Russia's president tried swapping the villainous cloak of warmonger for the white mantle of peacemaker.
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A little over a year ago, he launched his air and ground forces in a blitzkrieg against Syria's rebels to rescue his ally, Bashar al Assad, from defeat.

Assad's regime has been responsible for killing more of his fellow Syrians than any force in the country - including the death cult that calls itself the Islamic State.

Russia's tactic, to target hospitals, clinics, water pumping stations and bakeries, was intended to break the back of the revolution.
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In Aleppo it succeeded.

Now, in a televised conversation between the Russian President and his ministers, we see Putin sitting at his polished table conducting a political masque.











Video:Nightmare vision: Video shows the destruction of Aleppo

Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, says: "Sixty-two-thousand armed people and during the last two months we spent most of the time marking on maps what we're asking of our American colleagues…"

Vladimir Putin, Russia's President, asks: "So these groups represent the core, they are the main Syrian opposition forces?"

Sergei Shoigu: "Yes, the main forces of the Syrian opposition."
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(Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister, listens).

Putin: "I agree with the suggestion by the Ministry of Defence to scale down our military presence in the Syrian Republic.

"But we will definitely continue the fight against international terrorism and keep supporting the legal Syrian government in the fight against terrorism."

He goes on to say that a ceasefire has been arranged to allow for more peace talks in Kazakhstan.











Video:Last Syrian rebel convoy leaves Aleppo

Coaxed by Turkey, Syria's rebels have signed up and it is understood that Iran will even order a withdrawal of Hezbollah from the ranks of the Damascus regime while IS and the Nusra Front continue to be fair game.

This is the best hope for peace in Syria for four years.

US president Barack Obama admitted early on in the Syrian civil war that Washington lacked a strategy.

Putin never did. It was clear he would batter the revolutionaries to the point at which they sued for peace and ensure that his ally, Assad, survived - whatever the costs to Syrians.

So it would appear that the Russian strongman has pulled off a bold and manly spectacular.

But that appearance may be a coup de theatre.

The reality is that Syria is now more than ever a Russian problem.

And it is to Moscow that Syria's Sunnis will turn for revenge.

This is a Russian and Arab tragedy that is only in its second act and a horror show that may run and run.