Brilliant news that Their Majesties the King and Queen will attend the DDay commemoration British Normandy Memorial. The King has been our Royal Patron since the start of our project and unstinting in his support.

Reassuring to see US working on post-conflict security in Gaza, based on a multinational force from moderate Arab nations, presumably + a Palestinian police force. Extraordinary that Israeli Govt have no plan, despite their obligations as occupying power! ft.com/content/063e4b…

Félicitations chère Muriel!

Yes. I’m surprised that Sandy Vershbow has forgotten that the UK deterrent has been assigned to NATO for the defence of allies since day one, with the Prime Minister retaining operational control.

What a wonderful picture! Expect to see a lot more of the silhouettes (1475 of them, representing the number who fell serving under Br command on DDay itself) on the TV coverage of the ceremony on 6 June.

Wise words here. Toria Nuland was an excellent colleague when we were NATO PermReps together 20 years ago. Not surprised her stellar career took her to the key policy role at State as Under-Sec for Political Affairs thru’ the Ukraine crisis. Look forward to hearing more from her!

This is very good. theguardian.com/politics/artic…

It is surely now time for the Government to publish at least a summary of its current legal advice: plenty of precedents for this in relation to UK military operations.

Wonderful morning in Oxford! Have a good weekend.

You should have been a diplomat!

Peter Ricketts It would obviously have to be a jar of Suzanne Ricketts’s homemade jam 😉

Look forward to listening to David Anderson on his Desert Island Discs without the music! But does he get to choose a luxury to take with him to the red benches?

Brilliant news. The King has been a pillar of strength for the Trust since the very beginning when as Prince of Wales He agreed to become our Royal Patron. Thank you Your Majesty!

Much appreciated Arthur! Quite right on the professionalism of Foreign Office staff: we have eg had one Ambassador who was equally effective in Riyadh and Tel Aviv!

So the reports were true. The gulf between Netanyahu and Biden is now miles wide, and the US have taken a much clearer stand than the UK on arms sales.

In view of the reports overnight that the US are holding back some consignments of munitions to Israel, thought I’d repost this 🧵on why the UK should suspend U.K. arms sales. A pity the Government could not have taken a stand on this and got out ahead of the US.

Interesting, and w’d fit with Biden’s strong opposition to a Rafah operation. See also today’s New York Times report that the administration are due to send Congress this week a report on whether they believe Israeli assurances that US arms are being used in accord with int. law.