The property developer Trump trusts enough to be his troubleshooter

His friendship with the president dates back to a late-night encounter in a deli in the 1980s. Now Steve Witkoff is a loyal envoy brokering the Gaza ceasefire and peace talks on Ukraine.

- By Julian Borger in Jerusalem

With the first phase of the ceasefire nearing its end, an American property developer has emerged as a key figure in determining whether Gaza attains a more enduring peace or slips back into war.

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's typically idiosyncratic pick as special Middle East envoy, has also found his way into the midst of talks with Russia over Ukraine's future, sitting opposite Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, instead of the official special envoy for the region, Keith Kellogg.

On both portfolios, Witkoff is technically outranked by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, but every national capital knows by now that in Trump's world, power flows through personal connection to the president. Rubio is a former bitter rival turned loyalist, brought into the administration for expediency's sake. Witkoff and Trump go back nearly 40 years.

That is what gives the 67-year-old businessman his clout. America's interlocutors know he is the genial emissary of a volatile leader capable of swinging from fulsome support to public vituperation in a heartbeat, depending in large part on who has Trump's ear.

Witkoff demonstrated his influence in getting the ceasefire off the ground. On 10 January, Witkoff believed a breakthrough was close, after more than seven months of meandering, inconsequential talks.

That Friday evening, he called Benjamin Netanyahu's office from Doha, where he had been meeting Arab officials, and told the prime minister's aides that he would be flying to Israel the next day. The aides explained that it would be Saturday and Netanyahu did not do business on the Sabbath, but would gladly meet the American envoy a few hours later, once night had fallen. Witkoff was having none of it and, according to an account in Haaretz newspaper, told them "in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him".