Free Republic

There’s a history needed for context here. But first, here’s the latest developments in order of their occurrence. ♦ 6:00am Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement early Monday saying it would withdraw its diplomatic mission from the Qatari capital of Doha within 48 hours and that all Qatari diplomats should leave Bahrain within the same period. The ministry’s statement said Qatari citizens needed to leave Bahrain within two weeks and that air and sea traffic between the two countries would be halted. It wasn’t immediately clear how that would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers....

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut relations with Qatar for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels also expelled Qatar from its alliance because of Doha's practices of strengthen terrorism. Qatar has categorically denied supporting; Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and is confidant US President Donald Trump will not last in power.

When serving under the Obama administration, Secretary of State John Kerry lobbied on behalf of two highly questionable Islamic organizations to get the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to remove them from its list of terrorist groups. Both of the groups — which have had great influence on President Barack Obama’s domestic and foreign policy concerning its handling of Islam and terrorism during his time in office — are based in Washington, D.C., and have posed a major concern for national security. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to fund the terrorist group Hamas...

On Nov. 16, 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took the unusual step of designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim American Society (MAS) – as terrorist organizations.They were among 83 groups named for their connections to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.This outraged CAIR officials, who immediately began efforts to get their organization removed from the list. They found a powerful ally in Secretary of State John Kerry, who authorized State Department officials to meet regularly with UAE officials to lobbying on behalf of CAIR and MAS .CAIR already had a sympathetic ear in the Obama administration, including...

Mohammad Bin Rashid: 'We do not want to see any discrimination based on colour, sect or origin'The legacy of both Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum represent the values of tolerance and respect of which the UAE is proud, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said. In a message on the eve of International Tolerance Day, Shaikh Mohammad recalled his memories of the majlis of his father, the late Shaikh Rashid, who used to receive Emiratis and expatriates of different...

A quiet but bloody war is raging on in Libya, and players from around the hemisphere continue to attempt a stabilization of what continues to be a very unstable situation. Some of these nations even have their own forward operating bases in Libya, including a secretive remote airfield operated by the United Arab Emirates and located about 50 miles southeast of Benghazi. Here, the UAE has deployed a pocket air force of heavily armed and armored agricultural planes developed into surveillance and light attack platforms–the AT-802U Border Patrol variant of the Air Tractor and the more capable IOMAX Archangel–in addition...

Turkey is convinced Arab countries were involved in Friday night’s failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem. The source said that Ankara believes the UAE and Egypt, two of the bitterest enemies of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, sought to undermine Erdogan’s regime, one of the movement’s staunchest allies and sponsors. Turkish embassies and intelligence agents across the Middle East have been trying to accumulate damning evidence of the involvement of these countries’ espionage agencies in the failed coup, he added. Turkey has also inquired whether the Turkish cleric Fethullah...

Last month has proven to be catastrophic for the credibility of one of Russia’s most touted air defense systems. The troubles for the Pantsir S1 air defense system in Libya began when Khalifa Haftar’s yearlong Tripoli offensive against the Ankara-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) began to collapse. Believed to have been supplied to the Libyan strongman as early as last year by his backers in the Gulf, the Russian system was meant to be used as a trump card against Turkey’s combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) air interdiction operations. Yet, after a major GNA counteroffensive last month, and the...

Francis’ Abu Dhabi Cardinal Calls Church's Absolutism “Not Defensible” “The absolutism of a religious institution is not reasonably defensible,” the Curia Cardinal Miguel Ayuso Guixot, 67, believes. Ayuso is the President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and father of the Abu Dhabi heresy. He gushed in front of the European People’s Party’s annual meeting at a Maronite monastery near Brussels (December 12, La-Croix.com) that the Abu Dhabi heresy “will heal the evils that plague the world.” He confirmed that his Abu Dhabi Declaration called for “legitimising religious pluralism.” Even the Council Church taught that she is the...

ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race. IMAGE: The Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the Emirates’ signals intelligence agency and Pax AI, a data mining firm linked to ToTok, have their offices.  Photo Credit...Ben Job/ReutersWASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials...

Reuban Kipyego took his pacing duties an unexpected step further when he won the Abu Dhabi Marathon on Friday, December 6. As the designated runner who was tasked with pacing the elite field through a specific point in the race, the 23-year-old Kenyan was expected to drop out around 30K. But Kipyego kept running all the way through the finish line, breaking the tape in a time of 2:04:40. The pacemaker turned champion beat runner-up Joel Kimurer by a minute and 41 seconds. As the marathon champion, Kipyego earned $100,000 in prize money. “I was setting the pace for the...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — France’s defense minister criticized the U.S. on Saturday over what she described as “unanswered” attacks in recent months threatening the Persian Gulf, warning that the decades-long American deterrence in the oil-rich region appeared to be losing its power. Florence Parly separately said France “deplored” both U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that led to the re-imposition of crushing sanctions, as well as Tehran recently breaking the deal’s enrichment, stockpile and centrifuge limits. While saying France would continue to talk to Iran, her speech before...

The United Arab Emirates intends to allow Israeli tourists to freely visit the country and is engaged in high-level talks with Israeli authorities to put the policy into practice, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper reported Wednesday. Israelis will initially be allowed to enter the UAE so that they can attend the Expo 2020 world fair in Dubai, which will include an Israeli pavilion. However, Expo and UAE sources confirmed to the paper that the intention is to leave the door open to Israeli visitors even after the exhibition closes. Israel has no diplomatic ties with the UAE, though relations between...

NEW YORK - Pope Francis’s landmark agreement with the Muslim world, signed earlier this year during his visit to Abu Dhabi, was heralded at the annual prayer service on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly as “an antidote to hatred, violence, extremism and blind fanaticism.” “The Declaration is an appeal to all people of goodwill to put aside particular and egotistic interests, be they individual, national or continental, to break down the walls in our minds and to cross the borders in order to promote and build up justice and peace,” said Bishop Paul Hinder, who serves as...

Multi-faith committee set up to spread Pope Francis’ claim that God wills ‘diversity of religions’ ugust 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A multi-faith “higher committee” was announced this week to implement the “Human Fraternity” document signed by Pope Francis and a Grand Imam in February that stated, among other things, that a “pluralism and diversity” of religions is “willed by God.”  Prominent members of the committee that has been set up in Abu Dhabi include Pope Francis’ personal secretary Monsignor Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, Bishop Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and Judge Mohamed Mahmoud...

A woman visits the ancient Jubail church in Saudi Arabia Jan. 19, 2019. The ruins date back to the fourth century, making it one of the country’s oldest churches. (Credit: CNS photo/Dale Gavlak.) UBAIL, Saudi Arabia — As Pope Francis embarks on the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, few may realize that the predominantly Muslim region carries an ancient Christian heritage.Christians worshiping there today have their antecedents in churches and monasteries hailing from the earliest times of Christianity. St. Paul ministered in Arabia, as recorded in the New Testament.When Francis visits Abu Dhabi, one of seven emirates composing...

Mysterious 3,000-year-old fingerprints have been found in bricks at an archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates. The fingerprints were found at the Hili 2 site in Abu Dhabi, which is part of the Al Ain UNESCO World Heritage Site. In a Facebook post, Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism said that the fingerprints could offer vital clues to archaeologists. The fingerprints, they explain "indicate the adoption of an advanced technique in construction." The National reports that ancient craftsmen used their hands to make indentations in the mud bricks. The indentations would be used to contain the mortar that...

Pope Francis is noted for his ambiguous statements, but I find the indeterminate meaning contained in the Abu Dhabi statement the most egregious. Here is why. Given the pluralism of world religions, many contemporary academics and pundits argue that Christianity can no longer claim itself to be the one true religion. Not only do those who profess other religious beliefs question Christianity’s uniqueness, but Christians, lay and ecclesial, do so as well. The ultimate question is: Is Jesus singular or is he merely one of many founders of various world religions? This issue assumed new prominence and urgency when in...

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries will likely need to cut crude supplies, perhaps as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day, to rebalance the market after proposed U.S. sanctions on Iran failed to cut Tehran's output, Saudi Arabia's energy minister said Monday.

Abu Dhabi: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is set to launch a major offensive against the last remaining Daesh stronghold on the eastern side of the Euphrates Valley in Syria, as the coalition seeks to finally drive the terrorists out of the area. Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesperson for the US Central Command’s operations against Daesh in Syria and Iraq, briefed reporters at the US embassy in Abu Dhabi on Sunday about the planned offensive to retake the town of Hajin from Daesh. This will be part of the third phase of ‘Operation Roundup’. Launched in May, the operation is...