Free Republic

The Islamic Front, a recently formed Islamist alliance of several large groups that cooperate with al Qaeda in Syria, has driven Free Syrian Army forces out of bases and a warehouse at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing into Turkey. Late last month, the warehouse and its FSA commanders were taken over by the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. Following an all-night battle between the Islamic Front and FSA units, today Islamic Front fighters seized FSA arms depots containing weapons that had come into Syria through Turkey, according to the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. FSA...

Obama is working with these savages. This is what America has become under this quisling. Obama should be backing the Kurds (who recently established an indepent state and the religious minorities that would be safe there). Syria: Islamist Groups Unite To Form 'The Islamic Front' MEMRI Seven Islamist groups announced the formation of "The Islamic Front", an alliance aimed at toppling Bashar Al-Assad's regime and replacing it with an Islamic state in Syria . The new alliance, announced Friday, November 22, 2013 in a clip aired on Al-Jazeera TV,, includes the following groups: Ahrar Al-Sham, Jaish Al-Islam, Liwa' Al-Tawhid, Liwa'...

Women with uncovered faces might give the little tykes all sorts of ideas. This isn’t happening in Afghanistan… but in Tunisia. The heartland of the Arab Spring. A group of Salafites has issued death threats against teachers at an elementary school in Djerba, Tunisia, if they will not start wearing the Islamic veil within a week. ... Some might complain that it’s unfair to call Salafis moderate. But I’m not being sarcastic. If the Muslim Brotherhood can be repeatedly referred to as a moderate group as well as many of the Salafist militias in Syria that aren’t Al Qaeda… that...

Branch of al-Qaeda vows death to Shi'ites for 'cursing the prophet Mohammed'; urges terrorists to keep fighting in Iraq, Sinai peninsula. video A video has surfaced from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria advocating the systemic genocide of Shi'ite Muslims for allegedly "damaging Mohammed's legacy" in perpetrating their beliefs. The video opens with a speech from a judge in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which has been a focal point of territorial fighting between the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebel forces. The judge's job: to establish rule over...

Recent statements from various leaders within the Syrian rebel movement show that the rift between secularists and Islamists remains a key issue. A video released by a leading Islamist faction shows Islamist military leader Abu Bilal al-Homsi exhorting his followers to reject the largely secular Free Syrian Army, led by Salim Idris. According to Al-Homsi, Idris has said that the Free Syrian Army under his command is fighting for "democracy, secularism, communism, and the rights of minority groups", including Syrian Druze. Rebels must fight not for democracy or rights, but for Islam, Al-Homsi declared. From the beginning, the purpose of...

Tyrannical leader Bashar Assad hailed Nelson Mandela Friday as an inspirational freedom fighter whose legacy serves as a lesson — to tyrants. The delusional message was posted to the Syrian president’s official Facebook page Friday — a day after Mandela’s death at 95 years old triggered remembrances around the globe about the liberation leader’s dignity and strength in the face of apartheid. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was "an inspiration in the values of love and human brotherhood,” read the post, which was accompanied by an image of Mandela and not intended to be ironic. “His history of struggle has...

AMMAN (Reuters) – Opposition activists again accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of using poison gas in Syria’s civil war on Thursday, and said victims had been discovered with swollen limbs and foaming at the mouth. The activists told Reuters two shells loaded with gas hit a rebel-held area in the town of Nabak, 68 km (40 miles) northeast of Damascus, on a major highway in the Qalamoun region. They reported seven casualties. Separately, the Syrian Revolution Coordinators Union also accused Assad’s forces of using poison gas.

Details: The Syrian Greek-Catholic Church has three “true martyrs�. They are the “three men from Maaloula who refused to repudiate their faith,� and were killed for this reason, said Patriarch Gregory III Laham during his meeting with Pope Francis on Sunday, this according to a press release issued by the Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem of the Melkites.The events that led to the three men’s death occurred during fighting on 3 -7 September in the town of Maaloula.According to eyewitness accounts, men from the Syrian Free Army and the Jabhat al-Nusra Islamic Front...

The gunning down of Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis, a high-ranking Hizballah commander and close crony of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, raised the stakes of the clandestine war running between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two weeks after two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The Hizballah officer was killed by five shots to the head and throat in the underground parking lot of his home in the Hadath neighborhood southwest of Beirut, when he returned home from work after midnight Tuesday, Dec. 3. The Hizballah statement, which said: “Israel is automatically held responsible for the crime,” described...

Why is Iran working on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles? There is no possible peaceful purpose for ballistic missiles. Iran may claim that their nuclear program is peaceful, but they cannot possibly make that claim when it comes to ballistic missiles. The only reason to have ballistic missiles is to target enemies with high explosives and WMD. Iran’s Shehab-3 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles have sufficient range to hit Israel, Saudi Arabia and US bases in Afghanistan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait and Turkey. Why are the Iranians working with the North Koreans on multi-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)? Who might the Iranians be...

Report: Obama Arranging Tehran Visit for Next Year Daniel Halper December 2, 2013 10:46 AM The Kuwaiti news outlet Al-Jarida reports that President Obama is seeking to arrange a trip to Tehran, Iran next year. The headline of the article reads, "Obama would like to visit Tehran, official invitation after details resolved." "Al-Jarida has learned from a U.S. diplomat that President Barack Obama is seeking to visit Tehran in the middle of next year," the report reads, based on a translation using Google Translate. "The source said that the desire to visit is shared, and that Tehran and Washington are...

This file picture taken on June 29, 2009, shows a general view of the Christian Syrian village of Maalula, 60 kms north of Damascus. AFP PHOTO Syrian rebels, including jihadist groups, captured the historic Christian town of Maalula north of Damascus Dec. 2, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rebels assaulted the town by rolling explosive-filled tyres down the hills onto regime forces and were able to reach the city centre after three days of intense fighting, with clashes still raging in the surrounding areas. The picturesque town is considered a symbol of the ancient Christian presence in Syria,...

President Barack Obama’s last-minute decision not to carry out an intended punitive strike against Syria’s President Bashar Assad this summer, after Assad killed almost 1,500 of his own people with chemical weapons, was influenced by secret US back-channel discussions with Iran, Israel’s security and intelligence community reportedly believes. The issue of Assad’s chemical weapons use came up in the secret US-Iran contacts held in recent months in Oman, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Friday, and it quoted unnamed Israeli intelligence and security sources asserting Obama’s change of heart was affected by those contacts.

By one estimate, two dozen Americans may be fighting with Al Qaeda-linked groups against the Syrian government. FBI officials worry they may become radicalized and carry out attacks in the US. This year, at least three Americans have been charged with planning to fight beside Jabhat al-Nusrah — a radical Islamic organization that the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist group — against Assad. The most recent case involves a Pakistan-born North Carolina man arrested on his way to Lebanon.

Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally entered Palestine during World War II...At the end of World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which on November 29, 1947, voted to partition Palestine. The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, though they made up less than half of Palestine's population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the...

Iran will decide the level of uranium enrichment in its nuclear programme based on its energy and other civilian needs, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in remarks reported Saturday. His remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend, which states that the enrichment level must be mutually defined and agreed upon by both sides in further negotiations. "Iran will decide the level of enrichment according to its needs for different purposes," Zarif said late Friday night, according to the official IRNA news agency. "Only details of the enrichment activities are...

House Intelligence Committee member Michelle Bachmann said that Iran’s nuclear facilities “must be bombed.” In a speech at a Zionist Organization of America gala on Sunday night, Bachmann said that the Geneva deal reached between Iran and world powers at the weekend will severely limit Israel’s ability to operate freely in the interests of its self defense. Bachmann said, “It may be incumbent upon the Prime Minister to make a decision he has no desire to make, and that would be to bomb facilities, that must be bombed, in Iran.” The former presidential candidate framed the deal as a deliberate...

Well, yes -- courtesy of Barack Obama. "Chairman of Iran's Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security: We Have Emerged Victorious Heroes over the West," from MEMRI, n.d.:Following are excerpts from an interview with Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, which aired on Al-Alam TV on November 25, 2013: Alaeddin Boroujerdi: [The nuclear deal] is very important, because by now, the Islamic Republic controls all aspects of nuclear science, from A-Z, from the very beginning all the way to uranium enrichment. This is why the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution...

DAMASCUS, Syria — In a terrace cafe within earshot of army artillery, a 28-year-old graduate student wept as she confessed that she had stopped planning antigovernment protests and delivering medical supplies to rebel-held towns. Khaled, 33, a former protester who fled Damascus after being tortured and fired from his bank post, quit his job in Turkey with the exile opposition, disillusioned and saying that he wished the uprising “had never happened.” In the Syrian city of Homs, a rebel fighter, Abu Firas, 30, recently put down the gun his wife had sold her jewelry to buy, disgusted with his commanders,...

CNN has made significant cuts to its interview with the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, most notably his comments on the number of people that actually support Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Iran's six-month temporary rollback of its nuclear activities agreed to in the recent deal has not begun and the start date has not yet been set, a spokesman for world powers' chief negotiator said Wednesday. "The actual date for the beginning of the six-month period of the first step has yet to be decided," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told AFP.

The US and Hezbollah are in secret indirect talks managed by London dealing with the fight against al-Qaida, regional stability and other Lebanese political issues. Senior British diplomatic sources, quoted in a report in Kuwait newspaper al-Rai on Wednesday, said British diplomats are holding discussions with leaders of the Lebanese organization and transferring the information to the Americans. The discussions “are aimed at keeping tabs on the changes in the region and the world, and prepare for the upcoming return of Iran to the international community,” according to diplomatic sources in Washington. Because the US, unlike the UK, recognizes both...

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters). The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Video shows Syrian terrorist, funded with U.S. tax dollars, cutting out and eating the heart and liver of his dead enemy The video at this link is very graphic, but it’s good that someone has documented it.Actually, the link is a news article with an embedded video. You can read the article without actually watching the video if you want.The first minute of the video is Glenn Beck criticizing Republicans and Democrats for funding this atrocity. The next 10 seconds is a warning about how graphic the video is. The graphic part starts at about the...

The security cabinet held a special meeting Tuesday to consider the implications of the new nuclear accord with Iran, the Syrian war, Hizballah and other current threats to national security. The session was unusually long and is expected to be carried over to Wednesday. IDF and intelligence chiefs gave the ministers special briefings.

A US citizen, who joined the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) in Syria, has sent a video message to the West expressing his desire to wage total war against the “infidels” and impose Islamic rule over the entire world. The video features “the American Abu-Dj’ana,” brandishing a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a bayonet, who says the following: “This is a message to people in the West from the Mujahideen (lit. ‘holy warriors’) in Syria. We came here from different countries to protect this land, this Islamic land; to spread the Law of Allah on earth; and...

Ninety percent of the American opinion elite will fall for the old "historic breakthrough" conceit every time. The appeal of getting enemies in a room together, where they will shed their animosity and "reason together," is so profound that nothing as tiresome as experience can diminish its allure. Don't talk to Secretary of State John Kerry or President Barack Obama of the League of Nations (which enjoyed such success ensuring world peace) or the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the 1928 treaty that outlawed war as an instrument of national policy. Fifty-four countries, including all the major belligerents of World War II, signed...

In case you had any doubts as to whether the “interim” agreement with Iran on nuclear technology that Barack Obama and John Kerry foisted on the world in the dead of night over the weekend was a terrible development, the world’s foremost Shia Jihadist terrorist organization has provided confirmation.

How shambolic of a smoking ruin is the Obama presidency? When Tina Brown surveys the wreckage, the best—the best!—thing she sees, the thing she believes will be Barack Obama's shining legacy, is his handling of Iran and Syria, which she declares to be "smart," and of course, "nuanced." The Obamacare catastrophe? Not to worry. On today's Morning Joe, Brown assured us that those problems are "transient." No, look over here, at President Obama's masterful handling of foreign policy! Yes, years from now, when the minor hiccups of the Obamacare rollout will be long forgotten, people will still be marvelling at...

Discuss Current Situation in Syria, Promoting Peaceful Solution to ConflictRussian President Vladimir Putin was received in the Vatican Apostolic Palace by Pope Francis this evening. The meeting is the first between the Russian head of state and the Holy Father. During the meeting, which was said to have lasted roughly 35 minutes, President Putin and the Holy Father discussed several topics of interest, including the fundamental contribution of Christianity in Russia. A communique released by the Holy See stated that particular attention was placed on current situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria. President Putin, the communique cotinued, expressed...

LONDON — Could the nuclear deal with Iran help ease the way toward peace talks on ending Syria's civil war? Immediately after the accord with Iran was finalized, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague set to work to prepare a political transition to stop the fighting in Syria. Iran is the principal backer of Syrian military strikes against government opponents and has made clear its intention to carry that influence to planned peace talks in Geneva. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says there is no excluding Tehran. "Without any doubt, the Islamic Republic...

U.S. President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday to discuss an international nuclear deal with Iran that has threatened to raise tensions between the close allies, the White House said. "The two leaders reaffirmed their shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," deputy White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One As Obama headed to the U.S. West Coast, reported AFP. "Consistent with our commitment to consult closely with our Israeli friends, the president told the prime minister that he wants the United States and Israel to begin consultations immediately...

Canada is "deeply skeptical" about Iran's intentions, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said on Sunday. "Every diplomatic [effort] should be taken to ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon," Baird said. He added that effective sanctions brought the Iranian regime to its more moderate front, and led to the interim deal signed in Geneva. Canada will therefore continue to impose its sanctions on the Islamic Republic in full force, Baird said. "A nuclear Iran is not just a threat to Canada or its allies but it would also seriously damage the integrity of decades of work for nuclear...

Shortly after the historic nuclear agreement was reached with Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning, John Kerry, US secretary of state, took to Twitter to announce a “first step that makes the world safer”. In one of those gestures that would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani promptly retweeted his comment. Yet within hours, both men had also revealed substantial disagreements over the nuclear negotiations in Geneva which served to expose the very large gaps that still lie between this initial deal and a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme over the next...

Oil prices are likely to drop, analysts said, as the nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers potentially paves the way for more crude oil to reach the global market.

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters). The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could...

The Iranian government stuck it to President Barack Obama today with government run television broadcasting "Down with America" during live coverage of the return from Geneva to Iran of Foreign Minister Javir Zarif after completing a deal on Iran's nuclear program with the U.S. and leading world powers, according to a BBC reporter.Ali Hamedani, Persian reporter for the BBC, posted on Twitter:IRIB is covering Zarif's arrival in Tehran with a montage of anti American pictures. Subtitle is down with America in Persian and English.When asked if "down with America" is a step up in anti-American rhetoric from the Iranian government's...

Addressing concerns over the language in the agreement between the six world powers and Iran regarding Tehran’s ability to continue work on its nuclear program, Rouhani said, “Let anyone make his own reading, but this right is clearly stated in the text of the agreement that Iran can continue its enrichment, and I announce to our people that our enrichment activities will CONTINUE AS BEFORE."

Damascus media hails ‘historic agreement’ Damascus welcomed the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran as a “historic agreement,” Syrian state media said Sunday Iran agreed with the US and five other world powers to a temporary freeze of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited and gradual sanctions relief. Iran is a chief backer of President Bashar Assad’s government. Opposition activists fear the deal will take international pressure off of Iran and embolden Syria’s government to use an even harder hand in the country’s three year old civil war.

...Hollande is much more focused on tapping into Israel’s know-how to help his country’s beleaguered economy. “Israel is, from an economic point of view, with the high-tech industry, considered to be very valuable,” Dr. Tsilla Hershco, a senior research associate at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies told The Media Line. “With all the turmoil around us, Israel is considered the one stable state in the Middle East from a political and economic point of view.” France has suffered greatly since 2008, when a worldwide economic downturn brought the European Union to the brink of collapse. Since then,...

Iran's nuclear deal with global powers was met with wary silence from Arab states on Sunday, with Iran's only two Arab friends Iraq and Syria welcoming the accord but others keeping their opinions to themselves. "I am afraid Iran will give up something on to get something else from the big powers in terms of regional politics. And I'm worrying about giving Iran more space or a freer hand in the region," said Abdullah al-Askar, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Saudi Arabia's appointed Shoura Council, a quasi-parliament that advises the government on policy. "The government of Iran, month...

Israel harshly criticized the agreement between Iran and six world powers, saying it would not prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon. "This is a bad agreement. It gives Iran exactly what it wants: both substantial easing of sanctions and preservation of the most substantial parts of its nuclear program,'' said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office Sunday.

The deal between the West and Iran regarding the latter's nuclear program is a "bad" agreement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said Sunday. "This is a bad agreement that gives Iran what it wanted: the partial lifting of sanctions while maintaining an essential part of its nuclear program," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. "The agreement allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium, leaves the centrifuges in place and allows it to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon," it continued. "The accord did not lead to the dismantling of the Arak plant," the heavy water reactor being...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu characterized the agreement signed with Iran early Sunday morning as a historic mistake. Directly contrasting US President Barack Obama who praised the agreement as opening a "new path toward a world that is more secure," Netanyahu – speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting -- said the world has become more dangerous as a result.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu characterized the agreement signed with Iran early Sunday morning as a historic mistake. Directly contrasting US President Barack Obama who praised the agreement as opening a "new path toward a world that is more secure," Netanyahu – speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting -- said the world has become more dangerous as a result. Iran, according to Netanyahu, received the right to enrich uranium as well as sanction relief in exchange for only cosmetic Iranian concessions. Netanyahu, who said the deal threatens Israel, reiterated what he has said in the past, that Israel is not obligated...

Syria's regime hailed the "historic" nuclear deal between its ally Iran and world powers Sunday as proof that negotiations rather than military action were the best way to resolve crises. Syria "considers it to be a historic accord which guarantees the interests of the brotherly Iranian people and acknowledges their right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," the foreign ministry said, quoted by local media. The deal sealed in Geneva was "proof that political solutions to crises in the region are the best way to guarantee security and stability, far from any foreign interference and the threat of a...

GENEVA (AP) — A deal has been reached between six world powers and Iran that calls on Tehran to limit its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, the French and Iranian foreign ministers said early Sunday. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, "Yes, we have a deal," as he walked past reporters crowding the hotel lobby where marathon negotiations had taken place over the past five days. Asked if there was a deal, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "Yes" and gave a thumbs-up sign. The goal had been to hammer out an agreement to freeze Iran's nuclear...

CAIRO: Egypt decided on Saturday to expel Turkish ambassador Huseyin Avni Botsali after remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Cairo deemed as being "provocative," the foreign ministry said. Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said Cairo took three decisions on Saturday concerning its diplomatic ties with Ankara. "First to expel the Turkish ambassador and downgrade our ties to the level of charge d'affaires, second to declare the Turkish ambassador persona non grata and third we will not send our ambassador to Turkey," Abdelatty said. He said the decisions were taken after Erdogan made remarks in Russia on Thursday that...

American and European negotiators have given Iran until Saturday night, Nov. 23, the fourth day of negotiations in Geneva, to reach agreement on an interim nuclear deal, debkafile’s sources report. After that deadline, those delegations plan to cut the talks short and leave. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif retorted that his government would not bow to threats. The US-EU deadline indicated that Washington, Paris, London and Berlin had reached the limit of their concessions to Iran. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said when he arrived in Geneva that the two difficulties encountered two weeks ago still remained. The Russian and...

Bilateral talks were still dragging on up to midnight Saturday, Nov. 23 in Geneva, well after the deadline the US and European negotiators gave Iran for an interim accord on its nuclear program. This indicated that four of the six powers had reached the limit of their concessions. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif retorted that his government would not bow to threats, but stayed. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the same difficulties encountered two weeks ago still remained. US Secretary John Kerry arranged to be in London Sunday.