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19 February, 2025. Prenegotiations are so-called because they are procedural and therefore generally come before the first stage of substantive negotiations; unless, of course, the lead negotiator of one of the parties is a self-confessed genius, has a conception of diplomacy that is entirely theatrical and is in a hurry. Thus the publicized phone call by Trump to Putin immediately preceding the US-Russian talks about talks on Ukraine (and other matters) at foreign minister level in Riyadh on 18 February 2025.

26 January 2025. The silver lining in any prolonged episode of shocking, large-scale violence such as the one being seen in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon at the moment is that it challenges long-fixed political positions and thereby offers hope for an eventual diplomatic solution. And it should be obvious to all impartial observers of the Israel-Palestine conflict that a solution must in due course be urgently sought.

25 January 2025. I was not surprised to learn that, despite continuing stiff opposition from London’s Tower Hamlet’s borough council, the new Labour government in the UK recently made clear that – subject to minor changes – it would support the long delayed building of China’s massive new embassy near Tower Bridge, thereby no doubt allowing the stalled plan for the badly needed re-building of the UK’s own embassy in Beijing to proceed.

13 Oct. 2024 The IDF’s current attacks on UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon should come as no surprise. It is evidence of Israel’s long standing hostility to the UN itself.

2 October, 2024. Security Council reform was one of the subjects dealt with in the UN’s ‘Pact for the Future’ that was comfortably adopted by consensus in the General Assembly on 22 September 2024. The Pact had been promoted by the Organization’s leadership, nurtured by diplomacy ‘facilitated’ by Germany and Namibia, and had easily overcome last-minute Russian opposition. Even one of the usual suspects happy to stand to attention when Moscow snaps its fingers – or at least adopt a posture of friendly neutrality – misbehaved.