Rubio arrives in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace negotiations with Russia as Zelensky claims he was not invited

Marco Rubio has traveled to Saudi Arabia to participate in peace negotiations concerning Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, has clarified that he was not extended an invitation to these talks.

The US Secretary of State engaged in a telephone conversation with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Saturday. Subsequently, today he will engage in discussions with Russian officials, accompanied by Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The specific Russian counterparts they will be meeting with remain undisclosed.

Reports from the Russian newspaper Kommersant suggest that the discussions are scheduled for Tuesday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, as per unidentified sources. Rubio is anticipated to hold discussions with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), potentially focusing on Trump’s proposition for the relocation of Palestinian residents from Gaza to other Arab countries, along with the US spearheading the reconstruction efforts in Gaza.

That proposal has infuriated the Arab World and heightened fears among Palestinians in Gaza of being driven out of the coastal strip. 

The talks will be among the first high-level in-person discussions in years between Russian and US officials and are meant to precede a meeting between the US and Russian presidents.

Rubio, speaking from Israel where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, said the coming weeks and days would determine whether Putin is serious about making peace.

The secretary of state said Putin ‘expressed his interest in peace’ during his call with Trump, who he said made clear ‘his desire to see an end of this conflict in a way that was enduring and that protected Ukrainian sovereignty.’ 

But although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is also in the region, a senior Ukrainian government source told the BBC that Kyiv had not been invited to take part in the talks.

Zelensky, who arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, said he intended to visit Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but no dates were set.   

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly ruled out accepting a peace deal negotiated without Ukraine, telling NBC on Sunday that he would ‘never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never’.

Witkoff said US officials were speaking separately with Ukrainian officials and that Ukraine was ‘part of the talks’, and Donald Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Sunday, that he expected Zelensky to be involved in the talks, though he did not say how.

Amid the upcoming talks which are likely to include discussions on Trump’s Gaza proposal, Saudi Arabia, alongside other Arab nations, has rejected any plan that involves resettling Palestinians, and Riyadh is spearheading Arab efforts to develop a counterproposal, which could involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a deal to sideline Hamas.

MbS has also insisted that Saudi Arabia would not normalize ties with Israel – a longstanding goal of Washington – without an agreement on a pathway to a Palestinian state.

Riyadh, which is also involved in talks with Washington over the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration, which took office on January 20, and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week. 

Last week, Trump vowed to move Palestinians into ‘beautiful, safe communities’ across the Middle East as he laid out his plan for ‘ownership’ of the war-torn territory.

The US president’s remarks came in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday night, less than a week after he floated his plan to take control of Gaza and turn it into ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’.

When asked if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory, he responded ‘no, they wouldn’t’, claiming that they would have ‘much better housing’ elsewhere in the Middle East.

‘We’ll build beautiful communities, safe communities…a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.

‘In the meantime, I would own this’, he said referring to the Gaza strip.

‘Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent’, he added, noting that he would want his plans to start ‘almost immediately’, putting an end to a conflict that has been ‘going on forever’.

Trump also highlighted that he would ‘make a deal’ with Arab states, such as Egypt or Jordan, and pay them ‘billions and billions of dollars a year’ to take in Palestinians from Gaza, who claim the territory as part of a future homeland.

Gaza has been devastated by the war that broke out when Iran-backed militants Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. 

The offensive Israel launched in response killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, before an agreement reached last month brought a fragile ceasefire.

Speaking from Israel on the upcoming discussions, Rubio said on Sunday: ‘One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one, but I can tell you that Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that could potentially begin that process.’

The secretary of state noted that if ‘real negotiations’ begin, Ukraine will ‘have to be involved,’ as will European countries, adding that ‘we’re just not there yet.’ 

The talks come after President Donald Trump last week spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone and ordered top officials to begin negotiations on the war, which he repeatedly vowed to end during his presidential campaign.

The call brought to an end a three-year freeze on direct contact between Moscow and Washington.   

Trump also revealed Sunday that Witkoff had met with Putin already ‘for a very extended period, like about three hours’. 

Amid the upcoming talks to end the three-year war, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was time to put boots on the ground in Ukraine and send British troops in to the country to enforce a peace deal.

The PM said the UK needs to be ‘ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary’.

‘I do not say that lightly,’ Sir Keir wrote in the The Telegraph.

‘I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way. But any role in helping to guarantee security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.’