Free Republic

Iranian authorities seized an alleged Israeli-linked cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning, in the latest escalation of tensions between the two countries, amid concerns of an Iranian attack in response to an airstrike on an Iranian embassy earlier this month.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Mexico's government severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police broke into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president, an extraordinary use of force that shocked and mystified regional leaders and diplomats. Ecuadorian police late Friday broke through the external doors of the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. Glas sought political asylum at the embassy after being indicted on corruption charges. The raid prompted Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to announce the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Ecuador on Friday evening,...

https://www.youtube.com/live/hxQMgmscyis?si=3IZ8brn5nJsnh6hP

“I want to apologize to the people of Israel for the horrible thing the South African government did. We are sorry.” Regent Xami Thomas, leader of the Khoi Kingdom of Southern Africa, delivered this message to a packed audience at the Friends of Zion Museum (FOZ) in the heart of Jerusalem on the night of February 1. The crowd cheered their approval. This was, after all, words of support from the citizens of the nation that had dragged Israel to the International Court of Justice on accusations of genocide. Thomas was not done, though. “The government does not represent all...

Argentina's president, Javier Milei, traveled to Jerusalem to announce the moving of Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem, the Israeli capital where it belongs. While he was there, he put on a kippeh and pray quite intensely at the Western wailing wall. The left, of course, abused him because of course they did, but it didn't stop him. Pro Palestinians mocked & ridiculed the Argentinian President for shedding tears at the Western Wall. Yesterday at 1:00 am, 2 Argentinian Israeli hostages were rescued by IDF. Psalm 170:6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress & the Lord delivered them from...

Approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday, a U.S. military official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the largest attack of its kind in recent memory. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria were also targeted with rockets and drones at least five more times on Friday; three times at separate bases in Syria, and twice at the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, a U.S. defense official said. The attacks were the most recorded against U.S. forces in the region in a single day since mid-October, when Iran-aligned...

Argentina’s libertarian President-elect Javier Milei confirmed on Monday that he would make visits to both Israel and the United States before his inauguration on December 10, trips he described as “spiritual” and intended to meet with rabbis whom he had consulted during the election. Milei won the presidency in a landslide on Sunday night, defeating the current Minister of Economics Sergio Massa, a socialist. Massa’s tenure has been defined by inflation of upwards of 140 percent, skyrocketing poverty and joblessness levels, and the worst economic crisis in the nation’s history. Milei, a self-described libertarian, has promised to install the U.S....

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday called out Western powers as "the main culprit" behind Israel's "massacre" of Palestinians in Gaza. The call came during the "Great Palestine Meeting" held in Istanbul, which was joined by over 1.5 million people, according to the organizers. President Erdoğan, who has been a leading international supporter of Palestinian rights, unleashed a scathing attack at Israel and its Western supporters. "The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West," he told the Turkish and Palestinian flag-waving crowd.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid thanked Turkey on Thursday for helping foil an Iranian plot to harm Israelis in Istanbul and said the effort was still under way.Turkish authorities arrested five Iranians suspected of planning attacks on Israelis ahead of Lapid’s visit, Turkish media reports said earlier in the day...Lapid arrived in Turkey on Thursday for talks with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu as the two countries press ahead with efforts to repair ties...Police seized two pistols and two silencers in searches conducted in houses and hotels where the suspects were staying, according to the report...Earlier this month, Israel issued a...

Cypriot police were on high alert early on Saturday after an improvised explosive device was thrown 30 meters away from Israel’s embassy in Nicosia. The “homemade bomb” exploded around 1:30 a.m. local time. Following the blast, two people walking near the Israeli mission were detained, as were two others in a car. Police found two knives and a hammer inside the vehicle.

Hundreds rioted outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan this evening (Tuesday) following the explosion at a Gaza hospital that Hamas blamed on an Israeli airstrike. Dozens of rioters even attempted to storm the embassy. Hamas has claimed that 500 people were killed in the explosion. The IDF has stated that it is investigating the blast and reiterated that it does not deliberately strike hospitals. The possibility that the blast was caused by a misfired Hamas rocket, many of which have been known to fall short and land in Gaza, is being investigated. An Israeli source later confirmed that "unequivocally,...

Moments after thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors descended on the US embassy in Lebanon and set fire, military members unleashed gas and smoke to push them back. The protests in the Middle East come after a blast at a hospital in Gaza that Hamas claims killed at least 500 people sparked widespread outrage. Iran-backed Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, called for a day of protest in Beirut on Tuesday in response to the attack. Thousands of Lebanese protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, gathered late into Tuesday night outside the US embassy in response to the incident. Video...

JUST IN: Chaos erupts at the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon after a rocket killed hundreds of people at a hospital in Gaza.The Israeli Defense Force denies launching the rocket while others are blaming them.Tear gas was fired at hundreds of protesters who gathered… pic.twitter.com/SEj1OH9xGA— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 17, 2023

Harrowing video caught a staffer at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing being stabbed on a sidewalk Friday — the day that Hamas’ former leader called on all members of Islam to wage a “day of Jihad.” The 50-year-old staffer is seen being stabbed repeatedly by the male assailant after a brief struggle as he lies on a sidewalk, according to a video posted on social media and geolocated by Agence France-Presse to an area about a mile from the embassy. “An Israeli employee of the Israeli embassy in Beijing was attacked today,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement....

Western embassies in Colombia have roundly condemned the graffiti. However, Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, has yet to say anything.

JUST IN - Israel recalls all its diplomats from Turkey - FM Cohen

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed Gaza in phone call with the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on Saturday. Erdogan told Haniyeh about Ankara’s efforts for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and possible treatment of the wounded in Turkey.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday criticised the United States for moving a carrier strike group closer to Israel, saying that it would commit "serious massacres" in Gaza. "What will the aircraft carrier of the U.S. do near Israel, why do they come? What will boats around and aircraft on it will do? They will hit Gaza and around, and take steps for serious massacres there," Erdogan said in a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Ankara. Erdogan has previously said that Turkey was ready to mediate between Israeli and Palestinian forces to ensure calm.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Israel's blockade and bombing of Gaza in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas' attack was a disproportionate response amounting to a "massacre," but repeated Ankara's offer to mediate. -snip- "Preventing people meeting their most fundamental needs and bombing housing where civilians live - in short, conducting a conflict using every sort of shameful method - is not a war, it's a massacre," he said, referring to Israel cutting off electricity and water to Gaza and destroying infrastructure.

On 24 April 1915, approximately 250 leading intellectuals of Constantinople’s Armenian community (including political leaders, journalists, and religious leaders) were arrested by Turkish officials. They were then slain. This event marked the beginning of the 1915 Armenian genocide. By 1923, Turkish deportation and annihilation policies resulted in the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children in jihad genocide during which Armenians and other Christians were targeted mainly for their religion. 108 years later, Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey have committed the same crime against the Armenians in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Since 2020, around 120,000 Armenians...