Amb. James Jeffrey to Newsmax: Swiss Peace Summit a 'Nothingburger'

Saturday's peace summit in Switzerland and the Vladimir Putin proposed cease-fire in Ukraine are both empty and meaningless at this point, and the U.S. needs to commit fully to helping fend off Russian aggression, experts told Newsmax.

"First of all, we need to give more weapons more quickly to Ukraine and, with certain special conditions on them, allow the Ukrainians to use them for strikes into Russia," former ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS James Jeffrey told Saturday's "America Right Now." "The administration took one step in that direction. They need to take more in Germany, in particular.

"The Putin cease-fire offer is not real. It's not a cease-fire along the line of contact, which, for example, was what Korea was, and in a very complicated way what Vietnam was in '72-'73, but rather the Ukrainians would have to withdraw from areas they fended the Russians off of from in four provinces that Russia claims.

"This is a nonstarter for the Ukrainians, being neutral is a nonstarter for them.

"There's going to have to be, in the end, other arrangements."

The grind of the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine will need peace talks eventually with all parties at the table, but this week's events are "nothingburgers," according to Jeffrey.

"The point is this is a war of attrition," he continued. "It's very hard to see how Ukraine can drive Russia out, but it's equally hard to see how Russia can conquer all of Ukraine.

"Eventually there will be peace talks, but we're not there yet."

Despite the bad optics of President Joe Biden leaving VP Kamala Harris to talk world peace in Switzerland, while he attends a Hollywood fundraiser for his 2024 presidential reelection campaign, Jeffrey said Biden did the real work needed to aid President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine against Russian aggression earlier this week at the G7 summit.

"First of all, they have to show that Kamala Harris is capable of functioning in foreign policy," Jeffrey told host Tom Basile. "That's the reason they sent her. What was important was the president's meeting with the G7 leaders and the meeting with Zelensky,

"Zelensky isn't putting a lot of hope into this summit. The Russians won't be there. There's not going to do anything other than confirm what has happened before.

"The important thing was the decision by the G7 to start tapping the Russian financial reserves that are held mainly in Europe to fund the war against Russia in Ukraine or to fund against Russian aggression."

Retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata added the Biden administration is failing to present strength and a united effort globally, "waffling" on foreign policy in Ukraine and the Middle East.

"Since the beginning of the Biden administration we've been displaying weakness in our foreign policy, whether it's Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine — indecision there at the very beginning of that war — Israel, Hamas going back and forth, a very, waffling type of foreign policy apparatus with the National Command Authority," Tata told Basile.

Russia sending subs to Cuba is "unnerving" amid the conflicts globally, bring danger closer to America, Tata warned.

"Why not put the U.S. Navy in man-to-man coverage on these ships that are really close to our shore and unnerving a lot of people in the United States and so why not, make a bigger deal of this?" Tata concluded.

"It's, quite frankly, because this administration has a very divided foreign policy apparatus that really can't decide what to do.

"And China, Russia, Iran are pursuing weakness, globally, where we are creating a vacuum."

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