397 stories · Page 16 of 40
After U.S. envoys met Iran’s foreign minister in Muscat on 6 Feb 2026, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu pulled his White House visit forward a week to lobby President Trump against a nuclear-only deal.
Within 48 hours (Feb 6-7 2026) President Trump both signed a US$1.15 b Taiwan security appropriation and issued an “America First Arms Transfer Strategy,” clearing procedural hurdles and signalling a pending arms package that could reach US$20 b.
On 6 Feb 2026, one day after New START lapsed, Washington publicly alleged Beijing carried out a covert, yield-producing nuclear explosion in June 2020 and demanded that any successor arms pact become a US-Russia-China agreement.
Four days after a U.S. F-35C downed an Iranian drone near the USS Abraham Lincoln, envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi in Muscat on 6 Feb 2026 for the first Oman-based negotiating round since the June 2025 war.
On 4-5 Feb 2026, Russian and Ukrainian envoys, joined for the first time by NATO’s SACEUR, met for a two-day U.S.-mediated session in Abu Dhabi even as Moscow’s forces intensified attacks, culminating in a nationwide power-grid bombardment on 7 Feb.
At 00:00 GMT on 5 Feb 2026 the New START arms-control pact expired for lack of a signed extension, while negotiators in Abu Dhabi failed to clinch a formal deal, leaving both powers legally unconstrained for the first time in 54 years.
On 4 Feb 2026 Xi Jinping first spent 85 minutes online with Vladimir Putin deepening strategic-energy alignment, then hours later told Donald Trump China would markedly boost U.S. soybean imports—signalling Beijing’s bid to hedge by tightening ties to both its chief energy supplier and its chief export market in one calendar day.
On 3 Feb 2026, only four days into a U.S-announced one-week pause, Moscow resumed large-scale missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, crippling heating in sub-zero weather while negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. convened in Abu Dhabi.
At 00:00 GMT on 5 Feb 2026 the New START accord lapsed, removing the last legally binding limits on how many strategic nuclear warheads the United States and Russia may deploy.
On 5 Feb 2026, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev announced “positive movement” toward a Ukraine peace settlement and confirmed imminent Russia-Ukraine-U.S. negotiations in Abu Dhabi, marking the first publicly acknowledged advance since 2024’s stalled cease-fire draft.
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