US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley has reportedly called off a planned journey to the Middle East because of the clash between the leader of Russian military contractor Wagner Group and Moscow’s top generals.
The visit was postponed “due to the situation in Russia,” a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs told Agence France-Presse on Saturday. Milley, the top-ranking US military officer, had planned to make stops in Israel and Jordan for talks with defense officials in both countries.
The trip was delayed shortly before Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had brokered a deal for Wagner founder Evgeny Prigozhin to halt his advance on Moscow and end his mutiny. The Kremlin said that under the agreement, a criminal case launched against Prigozhin on Friday would be dropped and that he would leave Russia. Wagner fighters who took part in the insurrection will not be prosecuted.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was also reported to have canceled a trip just before the crisis in Russia ended and instead joined President Joe Biden at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. Sullivan had been scheduled to attend a meeting in Denmark on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.