Talking on three fronts Witkoff has plenty to do, with little experience

Donald Trump's version of Pax Americana, the idea that America can through coercion impose order upon the world, is facing its moment of truth in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.

- Patrick Wintour

America's aim has been to keep the three era-defining sets of negotiations separate, and as much as possible shape their outcomes alone. The approach is similar to that for trade talks, where the intention is for supplicant nations to come to Washington individually bearing gifts in return for access to US markets.

The administration may have felt it had little choice given the urgency, but whether it was wise to launch three such ambitious peace missions and a global trade war simultaneously is debatable.

It is true the three conflicts are discreet in that they have distinct causes, contexts and dynamics, but they are becoming more intertwined than seemed apparent at the outset, in part because there is so much resistance building in Europe and elsewhere about the world order Trump envisages, and his chosen methods.

To solve these three conflicts would be a daunting task for anyone, but especially for a man entirely new to diplomacy and, judging by some of his remarks, also equally new to history.

Steve Witkoff, leading the talks, has strengths, not least that he is trusted by Trump. But he is stretched, and there are basic issues of competence. US diplomats are reeling from cuts to the state department budget and there is an absence of experienced staffers. Witkoff simply does not have the institutional memory available to his opposite numbers in Iran, Israel and Russia. Most of the Iranian negotiating team, for instance, led by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, are veterans of the 2013-15 talks that led to the original Iran nuclear deal.