Danny Blah Blah

A father with a psychopathic tendency. No more Tories in positions of power! Green Tea drinker.

[Danny Blah Blah @Finding__Newo]

@ivyessence_ Yeah, I definitely hope to be having sex in my 90s.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

@_ritar_ An elegy for the part where nobody died.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

Hillary's wars in the Middle East have unleashed destruction, terrorism and ISIS across the world.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The Day the UAE dreaded:

Under attack from barrage of Iranian missiles. UAE says it has intercepted several but some getting through.
Civilian killed by fallen debris after an explosion.

Multiple explosions could be heard in Dubai, commercial hub of the UAE, and Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital.

An explosion heard near Dubai Marina, a dense residential area popular with tourists.

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.

[Dominic Grieve @dominicgrieve_]

Your post is quite astonishing.
You either believe in jury trial or you do not. For as long as I can remember the Conservative Party has seen it as a key part of our freedom under law. If so, you have to accept the right of a jury to bring in a verdict with which you might disagree.
You call it "two tier justice" and try to blame the Labour government for something that you know or ought to know has nothing to do with them. That is the hallmark of the the rabble rouser not a Shadow Home Secretary.

[Ed Davey @EdwardJDavey]

The Prime Minister must act with immediate airdrops of much-needed aid into Gaza and get other countries to do the same.

It is simply inhumane that Gaza faces starvation due to Israel’s aid blockade. Words alone won’t save lives.

[Jeff Sunday @TheDegenWeekly]

This might be the best SNL skit in the last 20 years

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

If you watch one thing today, make it this interview from last night in which the former head of M16 explains that Trump is a moron, that Europe must get hugely armed and fast because Russians are coming.

[Tanita Tikaram💙 @tanita_tikaram]

UK 🇬🇧 media maybe it’s time to stop promoting Putin/Trump lover Farage 🤔 & start investigating his links & funding from far right groups. He spoke this wk at CPAC which French Far Right leader Bardella withdrew from over what he called a "gesture referring to Nazi ideology".

[Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer]

We were elected with a mandate of change.

The next phase of mission-led government continues our relentless focus on delivering for working people.

Our Plan for Change sets out ambitious, yet achievable milestones that will improve people’s lives across the country.

[Danny Blah Blah @Finding__Newo]

@footballfights It’s like in the old days when we used to play shirts against skins.

[Tanita Tikaram💙 @tanita_tikaram]

Remember BBC political editors’ confected outrage over Labour volunteers supporting the Harris campaign ? Farage is in the US literally salivating over Trump & there’s no mention of it on their timelines . The bias is deafening 🥴.

[Dr Dan Goyal @danielgoyal]

More than £30b of the £40b raised in taxes is going to the NHS and schools.

Not tax relief for the wealthy

Not tax breaks for big business

For our health and the education of our kids

A refreshing change in direction!

[DCPetterson.bsky.social @dcpetterson]

As a reminder,

The US has had 46 presidents. Among them, there have been 91 criminal felony charges indicted. Those charges are distributed among the presidents as in the following list:

1/2

[Ian Dunt @IanDunt]

In the last week, Labour hit a crucial milestone on getting rid of hereditary peers, unlocked £1bn funding for social housing insulation, initiated plans to regulate buy-now-pay-later lenders and started to coalesce around an HS2 replacement. Barely any chat about this at all.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Southern Water plans to pay out £275m in dividends despite rising debt pressures."

So @SouthernWater say they need to borrow £4bn and @ofwat is about to approve putting up customer bills by 44%, oh and they still managed to payout £275m in dividends. You're being had.

https://t.co/NAKHDAPMZz

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Nigel Farage is upset because #FarageRiots is still trending the day after the Reform Conference. To share this using that hashtag now would just be petty and cruel...