UAE Helped Set Up Backchannel Meeting To Putin For Donald Trump: Report
Donald Trump had a backchannel line of communication to Russia that was set up by the Blackwater founder and the United Arab Emirates
The Founder of Blackwater, the controversial security contractor, met with a Russian close to Vladimir Putin in early January in an effort to create a backchannel like of communication between the Trump camp and Moscow, according to a new report.
The secret meeting was held on the remote Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean on January 11 just 9 days before the Trump inauguration.
The Washington Post reported, “The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to US, European and Arab officials.”
The Washington Post went on to note that “The meeting took place around Jan. 11—nine days before Trump’s inauguration—in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would likely require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”
Prince donated to the Trump campaign and is the brother of Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy Devos. Prince presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump, according to the Washington Post report.
