Cardenal Esteban Marín, in his capacity as Foreign Minister, convened an emergency session of the Almarian Council on External Affairs at the Residència on Saturday morning, following a fresh exchange of accusations between the two powers party to last month's eastern-basin ceasefire. The Cardenal said little on departing the meeting; those who saw him said he carried the manner of a man who had heard worse than he had said.

The Herald understands that a destroyer of the Royal Almarian Naval Fleet has been placed on standby readiness in the approaches to the Strait of Vella. The order is described by officers familiar with it as precautionary and routine; routine, in this instance, means that it has not been done since the autumn.

Almaria's permanent observer delegation to the Regional Stability Forum issued a joint statement urging both parties to honour their commitments. The phrasing was the careful, unloved phrasing of such statements; it asked for nothing that could be refused and committed to nothing that could be tested.

Palace sources declined to say whether the King had been personally briefed. The Prime Minister's office confirmed a situation-review meeting was held in the afternoon. Neither office volunteered the names of those present.

The Cardenal's brief is now considerable. The corridor surcharges that have driven Monday's fuel vote are themselves a function of eastern instability; a fraying ceasefire is, in plain terms, the same file under a different cover. That two ministries — Foreign and Finance — should be reading from the same page on a Sunday is unusual. That the page is being written abroad, and read here in translation, is the ordinary condition of a small kingdom on a contested sea.