According to Donya-ye Eghtesad reporting based on Mehr news agency, Steve Witkoff, special representative of the U.S. President, announced plans for trilateral talks between Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow. According to the report, representatives of all three countries will participate; the meeting is scheduled for November 19-20 (Aban 19-20 in the Iranian calendar, November 10-11 in Western dating) in Abu Dhabi. The semi-official ISNA report on the same topic confirms the venue and date. Donya-ye Eghtesad's report contains no direct quote from Witkoff; the announcement is presented indirectly, attributed to a Mehr news agency dispatch and a U.S. official confirming it, as reported by Reuters.
According to related headlines on the Donya-ye Eghtesad page, Witkoff previously met with Russian President Putin, Putin said a deal with Tehran is possible, Witkoff and Kushner's planned Russia visit was postponed due to certain conditions from Ukrainian President Zelenski, and Washington is applying pressure on Ukraine. However, since these appear only as page links, details cannot be verified from this report. Hamshahri's report, while headlined with "What is Trump's representative's task," does not elaborate on the specifics within the article text.
Witkoff is recognized within the Trump administration as both Middle East special envoy and the president's chief spokesman and negotiator on the Russia-Ukraine file. All three reports—Donya-ye Eghtesad, ISNA, and Hamshahri—title him as "presidential special representative." The three outlets' reports substantially overlap in content, each repeating the same core information—date, location, and participating countries—sourced from a single official announcement, suggesting the source is a single official statement.
Context
Abu Dhabi's selection as the venue for trilateral talks suggests the UAE has recently taken on a mediator role in the diplomatic traffic among the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine; the same city is also mentioned in a separate report published today through the UAE state oil company ADNOC issuing warnings about global energy markets. The focus on the Ukraine war indicates this is a separate diplomatic track from the Iran matter; however, Witkoff's role as a leading Trump administration figure on both the Russia-Ukraine and Iran files shows that Washington is running multiple negotiations through the same key personnel. This report contains no information on whether Iran is participating in this process. Tehran's own negotiation track, as seen in today's report on Vance's statements, proceeds through a separate diplomatic channel.
The Ukraine war and ongoing conflict against Iran have recently appeared together in Persian press as two interconnected crises. In a report from November 1, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz combined with the war in Ukraine places a heavy burden on the global economy. Today's trilateral talk initiative suggests at least one of these two crises—the Ukraine war—is seeing concrete diplomatic engagement; however, press reports contain no assessment of how this initiative will affect tension in the Strait or ongoing Iran negotiations. Details on the talks' outcome and which issues will be discussed have not yet been disclosed as of the announcement. The report carries no direct Turkey connection.
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