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Mark Fitzpatrick

@marktfitz

Grandpa. Ex-expat in UK. Former State Dept.

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22.12.2023
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Latest posts by Mark Fitzpatrick @marktfitz

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For the First Time, U.S. Sides With Russia and China in Ukraine Energy Dispute Washington opposed a resolution backed by many of its allies over the danger posed by attacks on Kyiv’s nuclear energy.

This is most unwise. It goes against tradition and alliance relationship and logic.” (quoting me).

www.wsj.com/world/for-th...

06.03.2026 12:48 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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In Trump’s Case for War, a Series of False or Unproven Claims

The US is again about to launch a war in the Middle East based on lies.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...

27.02.2026 15:50 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Ambassadors behaving badly

*Trump team on damage control after Huckabee comments on Israel

*U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner banned from meeting with French government over summons no-show

* 'Not his job to disrupt national politics,' Belgian PM says of US Ambassador Bill White

24.02.2026 21:59 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Iranian Minister: Here's How Iran Sees the U.S. | Opinion U.S. power has appeared less as a guarantor of law than as an instrument of disruption. Iran is not unique in this experience.

It's worth reading how a thoughtful Iranian sees my country.

tinyurl.com/3vuauum9

23.02.2026 14:52 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion | Fixing America’s broken nuclear fuel supply Growth and AI advances can’t come without big leaps in energy production.

The WashPost continues its down slide. Today’s lead editorial pushes both uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing but conflates the two. Enrichment does nothing to address the spent fuel problem.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

23.02.2026 13:05 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
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Witkoff warns Iran is ‘a week away’ from 'bomb-making material' as Trump weighs action Special Envoy Steve Witkoff warned Iran could be "a week away" from having "industrial-grade bomb-making material," raising urgent questions about Trump's next steps.

Witkoff doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. Iran a week away from “industrial-grade enriched uranium? There’s no such thing. If he means “weapons grade,” where would Iran do that? And what does he mean Iran must “behave”? We first violated the 2015 deal.

www.foxnews.com/media/witkof...

22.02.2026 23:57 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Hi Molly. Yes, certainly.
Please contact me via email: Fitzpatrickdiplomacy@yahoo.com

19.02.2026 21:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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El Paso airspace closure ordered after drone test shot down balloon - US media The sudden 10-day closure of El Paso's airspace reportedly followed a spat over drone technology testing by the US military.

A poster child for DHS incompetence and overkill.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

12.02.2026 13:29 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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Donate to Support a Mom’s Fight for a Future after being taken by ICE, organized by Jennifer Nadeau Help a Loving Mother Fight for Her Future — and Keep Her Fami… Jennifer Nadeau needs your support for Support a Mom’s Fight for a Future after being taken by ICE

gofund.me/e80f4359a

06.02.2026 03:20 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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The violence in Iran could lead to civil war As America masses an armada, the regime’s response to recent protests is radicalising Iranians

I don't necessarily agree with The Economist that Iran is close to civil war. For now, it's a very one-sided conflict, as attested by the staggering number of protestors the regime has killed.

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

04.02.2026 14:52 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Scoop: Direct talks ‘not on agenda’ as Iran-US diplomacy to return to Oman The story: Following consultations with a number of regional capitals, Iran and the US are expected to resume negotiations in Oman rather than Turkey on Feb. 6, multiple senior Iranian sources told Am...

"An Iranian refusal to meet with US officials may play right into the hands of those in Washington and Tel Aviv who are eager for diplomacy to fail."

amwaj.media/en/media-mon...

04.02.2026 14:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Another day, another ICE Out protest, this one in DC (Georgia Ave & Petworth). Most of the people were in front of me, including a family with a five year-old – Liam‘s age.

02.02.2026 02:14 👍 21 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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I joined a spirited ICE Out Saturday next to the Vienna metro station. It’s good it didn’t last more than an hour because my toes started their own protest.

01.02.2026 13:22 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Policy by narcissism. Nothing is too petty for the man child.

05.01.2026 12:26 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Exactly.

02.01.2026 16:30 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Good that the Washington Post still calls the Kennedy Center by its proper name. And good that artistic groups are protesting the attempted renaming.

31.12.2025 12:33 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Trump wrongly seeing Israel, US national interests as equivalent regarding Iran missiles TABNAK, Dec. 27 - Former US diplomat says that Trump seems to be instinctively parroting Netanyahu, wrongly seeing Israel and American national interests as equivalent.

I appreciate it when Iranian news outlets run my interviews in full. This one gave me an opportunity to affirm the IAEA role and need to monitor Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.

www.tabnak.ir/en/news/7069...

29.12.2025 13:07 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This is potentially positive. It means Iran has less incentive or need to develop space launchers that could contribute to an ICBM program.

28.12.2025 18:36 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Is This The End of the Free World? Trump wants to MAGAfy Europe, too

MAGA hates Europe for its freedom.

bit.ly/3XTfVUb

13.12.2025 15:21 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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U.S. plans to ask visitors to disclose 5 years of social media history The proposal would affect travelers from countries on the visa waiver program, including Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

If the US goes ahead with this Orwellian requirement, other countries will require the same of American visitors. Is that what we want?

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

11.12.2025 11:56 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Thailand and Cambodia are fighting again, leaving a Trump-brokered peace agreement all but dead. What happened? | CNN Armed clashes between Thailand and Cambodia entered a second day on Tuesday, both sides said, in defiance of calls from the United States to stop fighting and adhere to a months-old Trump-brokered pea...

The silver lining for Trump is that if Thailand and Cambodia overcome their latest squabble, he can claim to have resolved nine wars.

www.cnn.com/2025/12/09/a...

09.12.2025 17:16 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Could Iran buy nuclear weapons from North Korea? If Iran sought to rebuild its damaged nuclear facilities and sprint for a bomb, it could try to turn to North Korea for assistance.

Thinking outside the box.

www.iiss.org/online-analy...

04.11.2025 13:32 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Is there a brewing crisis in the State Dept’s Mideast Bureau? Trump may have yanked Joel Rayburn for being too hawkish on Syria, but now an Iran hawk is left guarding the hen house

Lamentable that highly qualified experts like Joel Rayburn and Tim Lenderking have been shown the door, leaving State's NEA Bureau in the hands of a non-substantive hack.

tinyurl.com/78edeb6b

04.11.2025 10:49 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Kim Jong Un praises elite troops that fought Ukraine as model for DPRK military | NK News North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with special operations forces that fought for Russia in its war against Ukraine on Saturday, according to state media, holding up the elite troops as a model for t...

North Korean soldiers display more ribs than pecs.

www.nknews.org/2025/11/kim-...

04.11.2025 10:39 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"this administration is ...the most corrupt in American history. It’s not subtle. It’s not hidden. And it’s not even denied. Trump and his allies are running the government as a family business."

04.11.2025 09:50 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Exclusive | State Department Intelligence Agency Dissented Over Putin’s Appetite for Peace The Central Intelligence Agency had a more positive assessment of the Russian leader’s willingness to talk.

The State Department's intell unit (INR) paid a price for its integrity and correctly judging that Putin wasn't ready for peace.

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

02.11.2025 13:19 👍 10 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0

Pretty scary that a dottering man who wrongly thinks Russia and China are testing nukes, who doesn’t know which part of his government is in charge of US nukes, and assumes they can be tested “immediately” has sole authority to order their launch.

30.10.2025 04:19 👍 49 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 1

Imagine the additional tariffs Trump will impose if Toronto wins the World Series.

25.10.2025 09:27 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

It’s shocking to read of Ashley Tellis being arrested, but he is innocent until proven guilty. While retaining classified documents is unforgivable, there is nothing wrong, per se, in meeting with foreign officials.

17.10.2025 08:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"This cosplay with armed troops flooding the streets of
American cities is a tragedy waiting to happen."

10.10.2025 22:51 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0