TRANSCRIPT
Three weeks ago... US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was receiving a hero's welcome in Israel...
Credited with helping unlock the ceasefire and hostage release deal... between Israel and Hamas...
Mr Witkoff praised the return of hostages... as he greeted cheering crowds in Tel Aviv...
"I think it's showing what a wonderful... how joyous the people of Israel are, and all over the world."
But now he's at the negotiating table in talks to end the war in Ukraine... while the U-S special envoy for Russia and Ukraine... isn't.
So who is Steve Witkoff?
The resume of the 67-year-old businessman and former lawyer reads much like Donald Trump's - a real estate investor and developer in New York , billionaire, and avid golfer.
He was on the golf course with Mr Trump when a second assassination attempt on the President was averted - and told C-N-N about the experience.
"We got to the fifth hole, we were on the green and I heard the first shot. I'm a gun carrier so I shoot so it was apparent that that's what it was, with three shots right after that in quick succession. He's really happy out on the golf course, on the other hand he's my dear friend and I never want to see anything happen to him and what's been happening to him ah, it's just crazy times we're living in. To me it reminds me a bit of the sixties and it's not something that ought to be happening in this country."
Mr Trump and Mr Witkoff have been close friends since the mid 1980s, and business partners for more than two decades.
Mr Trump speaking of their close bond when calling Mr Witkoff up on stage at a 2018 summit on the opioid crisis.
"Steve, come on up here. Steve has been one of my great friends over the years, tremendously successful man."
At the event Mr Witkoff spoke of his personal tragedy - losing his 22-year-old son to an oxycontin overdose.
"I lost my son in 2011, and he didn't buy drugs on the Dark Net he bought drugs on the Internet, a website owned by three of the largest US corporations in the country today. I always felt hopeless before you were elected and I've never lobbied my friend about anything I've just supported you because I so believe in you. But if my son knew you were going to take up this battle, oh my gosh, he must be upstairs applauding every single day. So, I am so grateful, thank you."
Last week, Mr Trump elected to send his friend, rather than the Secretary of State, to Moscow.
His meeting there helped secure the release of US school teacher Marc Fogel, who had been held prisoner in Russia more than three years.
Mr Witkoff said freeing Mark Fogel was a step toward peace in Ukraine.
"It felt like I was blessed. Like somebody reached down, touched me and said, you get to go do this. And or implement it on behalf of the president. I think getting Mark Fogel out was critical and the Russians were very, very helpful in that effort and very accommodating. And I think that's maybe a sign about how that working relationship between President Trump and President Putin will be in the future and what that may portend for the world at large for conflict and so forth. I think they had a great friendship. And I think now it's going to continue and it's a really good thing for the world."
U-S media have dubbed Steve Witkoff - the man in the room.
The fate of Ukraine, seemingly placed on his shoulders.
