Brian Whitaker

Journalist, former Middle East editor of the Guardian newspaper. Author of 'Arabs Without God: Atheism and Freedom of Belief in the Middle East'.

[Brian Whitaker @Brian_Whit]

Syria arrests 18 chemical weapons suspects as Russia mocks renewed investigation efforts https://t.co/q4PR6rTERJ

[Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon]

There is a growing push inside Parliament for widespread sanctions on Israel.

It's what the public wants. And a new poll shows more than two-thirds of Labour members want tough sanctions too.

This is a fight we are going to win!

[Harriet Williamson @harriepw]

BREAKING: Four Palestine Action activists found guilty of criminal damage are applying to remove the judge in their case on the grounds of bias. Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson is expected to sentence them as terrorists – despite being convicted of an ordinary criminal offence – in a move kept secret from the jury

[Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom]

He doesn't want to be Carter (launching a risky military operation) and he also doesn't want to be Obama (taking the political hit for making a deal with Iran)

Which leads us to our current months-long moment of strategic paralysis

[Ed O'Keefe @edokeefe]

NEW: Trump's name must come off the Kennedy Center by June 12 https://t.co/WVJoYh5CqF

[Ken Dilanian @KDilanianMSNOW]

New: Former Trump National Security advisor John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information related to a diary entry. Under the agreement, he faces up to 60 months in jail and a $2.25 million fine. The plea deal would settle a massive indictment that carry decades in prison and millions of dollars in legal fees.

[Idrees Ahmad @im_PULSE]

Good call by @ZackPolanski. I doubt @TerrorismPolice makes this exception for anyone who joined other forces implicated in genocides.

[caroline wheeler @cazjwheeler]

New: The King raised serious concerns about Donald Trump’s state visit to the U in the wake of the US President’s infamous bust-up with Volodymyr Zelensky, The i Paper understands.

The monarch’s private reservations over the visit left officials scrambling, fearful that a royal snub of President Trump could detonate into a full-blown diplomatic crisis.

Multiple senior Whitehall sources have told this newspaper that the King was reticent about hosting Trump at this time because of his treatment of Zelensky.

One source said Charles was “jittery” about it, while another put it more starkly: the King “did not want to do it.”

A flurry of emails and texts exchanged between Peter Mandelson, then US ambassador, and officials in March 2025 reveal a behind-the-scenes diplomatic scramble to alleviate Charles’s concerns over the visit.

In one message, the peer thanks the most senior civil servant in Foreign Office for his “cool handling of the last 48 hours on the SV [State Visit]”, and in another exchange five days later Mandelson discusses how he is awaiting an update following the weekly audience between the King and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The King’s concerns are understood to be included in a number of heavily redacted documents released in the so-called Mandelson files.

W/ @janemerrick23 @singharj

https://t.co/94T6VLboO6

[John Crace @JohnJCrace]

https://t.co/sHUrzl1tHc

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Dear Mogg
I see Blair has written an essay. I should have thought of doing this, as I am the true descendant of Cicero, Seneca, Purina, Bonio and Paxo. My essay of today would range from Ukraine to cricket, as Sinatra sang, 'I can see clearly now'.
Brillo pad in playtex
Boris

[Agnes Callamard @AgnesCallamard]

Gulf states: More than 1,000 arrested in sweeping war-related crackdown on expression including for sharing online content or expressing views related to the US-Israeli war with Iran and Iran’s attacks on the Gulf.

In Kuwait and Bahrain, authorities have also stripped citizens of their nationality, including in reprisal for expression.

https://t.co/XGUv5CmMWP

[John Crace @JohnJCrace]

https://t.co/BqSzqCRjQo

[Elizabeth Tsurkov @LizHurra]

Israeli Ch 11: Israel intended to carry out a broad attack across the Dahiyeh this afternoon, but it was delayed due to American pressure. Israel is asking the US to re-grant it the green light to strike the Dahiyeh. The issue is currently being discussed in a phone call between Trump & Netanyahu.

[Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb]

Iran's decision to suspend talks and threaten full closure of the Strait of Hormuz in direct response to ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon is a major turning point in this war, and one of the clearest indications that the US-Israeli attempt to impose a surrender framework on Lebanon has collided with a regional logic it seems incapable of understanding. Its substance is the criminalisation of sovereignty, whereby Israel seeks to continue advancing its invasion in southern Lebanon and entrenching its occupation, while Beirut is taken hostage to prevent Hizbullah from mounting any defensive response to that occupation.

That the Lebanese government has attempted to convince Hizbullah of the reasonableness of this new equation, and insisted on proceeding with talks with Israel tomorrow, even as Iran suspends its own negotiations in rejection of this same equation, captures the depth of the divergence. The difference is not merely over values or political principles, but over the very meaning of rationality under the simultaneous conditions of imperial and colonial force. One side has internalised US-Israeli power as the permanent horizon of political reality, while the other treats that same power as contingent and contestable.

Iran's refusal is therefore not merely the product of religious solidarity, ideological affinity, or shared strategic culture with Hizbullah, but is better understood as a rejection of the defeatist rationality that presents imperial power as the invisible limit of the possible, the zero point beyond which politics cannot go. What Iran and Hizbullah share is a political ontology grounded in the refusal of this defeatism, and a conception of sovereignty not as formal recognition conferred by power, but as the substantive capacity to reject subordination, even when the cost is very high.

[Zeina Khodr @ZeinakhodrAljaz]

Iran's IRGC threatens to open "new fronts" &keep Strait of Hormuz closed over Israel's offensive in Lebanon, state media."Iran considers crossing red lines in #Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war"Tehran insists any deal to end war must end Israel's escalating offensive in Lebanon

[David Yelland @davidyelland]

Wow. This EXTRAORDINARY e-mail underlines (in the cache today, spotted by @Steven_Swinford) just how good Olly Robbins’ instincts were on Peter Mandelson. Robbins is right on strategy, on execution, on policy and on risk, not least why on earth Mandelson thought it a good idea to give The Sun an interview at that point and on the granular detail of Bloomberg’s questions.

[Hiba Nasr @HibaNasr]

U.S. officials have been informed, through official Lebanese diplomatic channels, that Hezbollah has accepted the U.S. proposal and is prepared to commit to refraining from targeting Israel, in exchange for a reciprocal commitment not to target Beirut’s southern suburbs. This is seen as a positive step that could help reduce tensions and prevent a slide into a broader confrontation.

These developments are expected to be discussed tomorrow and the following day during the direct negotiation meetings in Washington.

@AsharqNews

[Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom]

Netanyahu and Trump are holding a call now, per Israeli media

[Al Jazeera Breaking News @AJENews]

BREAKING: Israel’s Defence Ministry says France has banned Israeli government representatives from attending the Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris this month.

🔴 More on https://t.co/hGzrK2N8WC

[Laura Rozen @lrozen]

Iran FM in post below says the US Iran ceasefire must include ceasefire in Lebanon.

The US last night said it proposed a sequence where Hezbollah stops firing first, then Israel will refrain from escalating against Beirut; but Hezbollah did not comply.

[ᴅʀ. ʜ.ᴀ. ʜᴇʟʟʏᴇʀ 🖖🏾 ⚜️ @hahellyer]

Extremely predictable, and likely a major factor in why Tel Aviv demanded on pushing so hard right now. Israeli spoiler action