The US envoy didn’t mince words: a tolling system on the straits is off the table, the Russia-Ukraine war needs to end yesterday, and Washington is watching — and waiting — for its moment.

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, stepped in front of reporters and did something Washington rarely does well anymore: he spoke plainly. The straits will stay open. There will be no tolls. And the war in Ukraine — now grinding past the length of the Second World War — has to stop.

On the question of a proposed tolling system for maritime passage, Witkoff was unequivocal. China opposes it. Iran is, to his mind, the only government that could possibly want it — and that alone settles the matter. “That cannot happen,” he said, adding that the straits need to remain open and unimpeded, immediately.

“That’s how these things unravel and keep going. And it’s why the war needs to come to an end.”— Steve Witkoff, US Special Envoy

He also confirmed he spoke directly with Putin ahead of the briefing — a call, he said, Putin had requested specifically to relay a message to the president. The context: a Russian government notice had gone out to all diplomatic facilities advising them that Kyiv was becoming, in Witkoff’s framing, “a very dangerous place.” He was careful not to read it as a direct threat — it went to all embassies, he noted — but he didn’t downplay it either.

The Russia-Ukraine war has now surpassed the length of World War II in duration. Both sides have recently exchanged what Witkoff described as escalating large-scale strikes — a cycle he called a reminder of why peace talks matter.

The back-and-forth with reporters then turned to Qatar, where talks involving Iran are reportedly underway. Witkoff stopped short of confirming any formal US representation at the table, but made it clear the administration sees the framework for a preliminary deal as largely agreed upon in principle — after what he called a “historic” call between President Trump and regional leaders earlier this week. The sticking points now, he suggested, are in the fine print: specific word choices, sentence-level disagreements in a draft document.