11 JUN 26 SITREP

• President Trump announced via Truth Social the nomination of Jay Clayton, former SEC chairman, former head of Sullivan and Cromwell, and current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to serve as the next Director of National Intelligence and cabinet member.
• Bill Pulte was identified as a planned interim appointee to DNI, to be sent in for a specific, targeted mission while Clayton undergoes the Senate confirmation process, which was described as potentially lengthy.
• Republican senators had grown unhappy with the absence of a permanent DNI appointment and had been pressing the president to submit a formal nominee; the Clayton nomination was understood as a response to that pressure.
• Jay Clayton, as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, had already been prosecuting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and pursuing border-related fraud cases, giving him an existing national security record before his DNI nomination.

• Trump stated this morning that the U.S. would strike Iran very hard tonight and that U.S. forces would take Karg Island and other infrastructure points, assuming total control of Iran's oil and gas markets as it had done with Venezuela.
• But later today, Trump cancelled the scheduled strikes, writing that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran had been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, with the naval blockade remaining in full force until the transaction is finalized.
• Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the Strait of Hormuz would officially open as soon as a deal is signed, potentially over the weekend, and that Vice President JD Vance would travel to Europe to represent the U.S. at the signing.
• The deal framework was reported as approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others, with the time and place of signing to be announced.

• Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese national and former Sudan police officer, is charged in connection with an attempted beheading in Belfast earlier this week in which a man lost an eye, with Alodid telling first responders at the scene "I have killed someone, I don't know if they are dead."
• Alodid is believed to have traveled from Sudan to Paris, then on to Dublin, before making his way into Northern Ireland in February 2023, where he claimed asylum shortly after arrival and was granted leave to remain in the UK in September 2023, all without triggering routine border checks.
• The case has exposed a longstanding vulnerability in the Common Travel Area, which covers the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, with a Border Force insider telling the Telegraph that UK border security is only as strong as Ireland's willingness to check documents at their end.
• Albanian gangs have been accused of charging thousands of pounds to smuggle migrants into Britain via Ireland using fake EU identity documents to board flights, prompting shadow home secretary Chris Philp to call for a strengthened common external border and an end to illegal migration through the CTA route.