Free Republic

After self-declared interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaido failed in calling on his nation’s military to oust dictator Nicolas Maduro, the attempted revolt appeared to have been strangled in the cradle. Only a handful of military leaders came over to his side and the civilian protests in the major cities fizzled for the most part. Guaido himself still hasn’t been arrested, but his deputy and several other opposition party leaders in the National Assembly have been locked up. This week, Guaido seemed to be getting a bit more nervous and he sent out an even more emphatic “invitation” to the...

Caught between a stalling U.S. pullout, Israeli 'alliance' and Idlib militias, Russian president finds his monopoly over Assad's resurgence may require some flexibility. Russian President Vladimir Putin can indeed credit himself with an important military accomplishment after transferring control of most of Syria’s territory to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but it seems this diplomatic minefield is presenting new and unexpected challenges for him that could erode the military achievements. The diplomatic plan Russia drew up looks, on its face, to be orderly and logical. According to the plan, Russia was already meant to be withdrawing some of its forces from...

Though Islamic State's ultra radical interpretation of Sunni Islam has been repudiated by the Islamic mainstream, the legacy of its violence has affected perceptions of faith. KOBANI, Syria - A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago. The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them towards their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town's first evangelical church opened...

Demonstrations by angry people in flood-affected areas of Iran are on the rise, according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which highlights the call by Maryam Rajavi, president of the NCRI, for army and IRGC facilities to be made available to the population to save victims of the floods. The statement refers to the demonstration of angry people in Malashiyeh, a suburb of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, against the presence of a Revolutionary Guard Commander (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Naghdi, in the region. The people affected by the floods shouted: “Get out! Ahvaz will remain free,” forcing...

Iran: Imam of Tehran’s Friday prayers wears IRGC uniform, says its missiles can level Israel to the ground “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know, whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.” (Qur’an 8:60) “Movahedi-Kermani also threatened Israel, saying that the IRGC missiles are capable to level Israel to the ground. (Supplied),”...

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan24) – On Thursday, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, reaffirmed the State Department’s tough language in its read-out, summarizing Pompeo’s meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the day before.The statement issued by the State Department on Wednesday included wording that suggested the US was prepared to respond militarily to any Turkish attack on America’s Kurdish allies in Syria.According to the US read-out, Pompeo warned Cavusoglu “of the potentially devastating consequences of unilateral Turkish military action” in northeastern Syria, while Pompeo also complained about Turkey’s plans to purchase the S-400 and its unjustified detention of US citizens.Without...

The United States has halted delivery of equipment related to the stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey, sources familiar with the situation said, marking the first concrete U.S. step to block delivery of the jet to the NATO ally in light of Ankara’s planned purchase of a Russian missile defense system.

A new bloc is emerging in the greater Middle East with the declared objectives of dominating the entire Arab world, confronting and containing the US and its allies; and controlling and benefiting from the entire hydro-carbon economy, from production to transportation. The leading members of the new bloc are Turkey, Iran, and Qatar; with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan submitting to the new bloc. Russian experts call the new bloc “the Middle Eastern Entente”. The key to the success of the bloc is the emerging correlation of influence of the great powers in the af-termath of the wars in Syria...

Too poor to even buy pens and notebooks for school, Mehdi left his home in Afghanistan soon after his 17th birthday and headed to Iran, hoping to make his way to Europe and find work. Instead, Mehdi ended up fighting in Syria’s civil war, a conflict he had nothing to do with, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from home. He was one of tens of thousands of Afghans recruited, paid and trained by Iran to fight in support of Tehran’s ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. There, he found himself thrown into one of the war’s bloodiest front lines, surrounded by the...

Where Is Assad Getting His Fighters From? (It's Not Just Lebanon and Iraq) Colin P. ClarkePhillip Smyth January 2, 2018 In early December, senior Trump administration officials suggested that approximately 80 percent of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s defense against insurgents in the country’s ongoing civil war is being provided by forces imported from outside of the country. The lion’s share of these fighters is being trained and equipped by Iran, the Assad regime’s most ardent supporter. Interestingly, however, these foreign fighters, almost of all which are Shia Muslims, are not merely comprised of Lebanese and Iraqis, but include significant numbers...

Iran is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria, promising a monthly salary and residence permits in exchange for what it claims to be a sacred endeavour to save Shia shrines in Damascus. The Fatemioun military division of Afghan refugees living in Iran and Syria is now the second largest foreign military contingent fighting in support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, after the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. ***snip*** Iran is also accepting Afghans below the age of 18 provided they have written permission from their parents, the Guardian has learned. At least one 16-year-old Iran-based Afghan refugee was killed in...

Soon after the military police came looking for the 25-year-old computer engineer at his family's home, he fled Syria. He bribed a security officer to briefly remove his name from the list of men wanted for mandatory military service and paid a taxi driver $1,000 to drive him across the border into Lebanon. Like many young men living in government-controlled parts of Syria, he had been putting off conscription by paying $2,000 a year, hoping to avoid becoming cannon fodder for a military that has been hemorrhaging soldiers, either by death or defection, after more than four years of war......

Iran is offering thousands of dollars to Shia mercenaries from Afghanistan and Pakistan to join the fight to keep President Assad of Syria in power. According to Shia community leaders in Kabul, the recruitment drive is co-ordinated by the Iranian embassy in the Afghan capital. It provides visas to “hundreds” of Shia men each month willing to fight in Syria. Online Urdu- language recruitment is also taking place in Pakistan, with fighters offered $3,000 each to join up.

Many of his foreign fighters come from Afghanistan -- men like Murad, who is now being held in Aleppo as a prisoner-of-war... All he had wanted was an Iranian residence permit, he says... he found himself fighting as a mercenary in the Syrian civil war on the side of the Bashar Assad regime... When a violent explosion caused the house he was in to collapse, he found himself thinking about his daughters, he says. "I screamed and thought I was suffocating. And then, everything around me was quiet." Men arrived and pulled Murad, who was still screaming, out of the...

Foreign fighters who claim allegiance to Islamic State are gathering dozens of recruits in eastern Afghanistan, luring would-be jihadis with generous resources and the group’s powerful brand, according to a Taliban fighter who has met several of their commanders. The rapid and dramatic victories clocked up by Isis in Iraq, Syria and Libya have attracted some young men with specific grievances against government or foreign forces, who simply want the strongest possible allies. Others seem drawn by the novelty of an upstart force, the Taliban veteran said, or by the apparently deep pockets of a group that boasts laptops, benevolent...

Iran has sent 15,000 fighters to Syria to reverse recent battlefield setbacks for Syrian government troops and wants to achieve results by the end of the month, a Lebanese political source has told The Daily Star. The militia force, made up of Iranians, Iraqis and Afghanis, the source said, have arrived in the Damascus region and in the coastal province of Latakia. The source said the fighters are expected to spearhead an effort to seize areas of Idlib province, where the regime has suffered a string of defeats at the hands of a rebel-jihadi coalition. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander...

Iran, Friend of the Sunni Terrorists (Surprise!) [Michael Ledeen] I guess I've been saying and writing this for more than seven years, but it's always nice to have support, especially when, as in this case, it comes from the general manager of al Arabiya TV, and a columnist in several publications in the Middle East. That is to say, not a neocon. Abdul Rahman al-Rashed states quite categorically: ...Iran, an extremist theocratic Shiite regime with Ahmadinejad at its helm, is orchestrating and funding the activities of extremist Sunnis in the region. The paradox is most striking in the case of...

Hagia Sophia to Be Turned Into Mosque in Response to US Shift on Golan - Erdogan ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he planned to turn landmark Hagia Sophia, a former Greek Orthodox cathedral in Istanbul, into a mosque after this month’s elections in response to the US policy shift on the Golan Heights. "After municipal elections, it [temple] will be converted back into a mosque from a museum. As US president Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel and the Golan Heights an Israeli territory, Turkey will give an adequate response as the rotating chair...

There has been no official mosque in Athens since Greece was liberated from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, though historical mosques survive as museums. However, nearly two decades of debate and planning are set to culminate in the opening of a new mosque in April, reports TASS. The mosque is being built on the territory of the former central parking lot of the Greek navy in the Athenian district of Votanikos. The imam will be elected by the administrative council and appointed by the Ministry of Education. Sermons will be mainly in Greek, though perhaps sometimes in English, the Secretary...

Yes, we expect places such as Russia and Iran to stick up for Venezuela's hellhole regime, along with its fellow Latin socialist hellholes Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.  But Bloomberg is reporting that U.S. NATO ally Turkey seems to be all in for helping Nicolás Maduro spirit the nation's gold out of the country for his potentially comfortable retirement.  The picture emerges of a dictator about to make off with the light bulbs on the way out. div class="article_body bottom mrf-hidden"> Back around when Maduro was eating that big steak dinner in Istanbul in front of Venezuelans for an Instagram post, here's what had been really going on, as Bloomberg...