Free Republic

An Iranian negotiating delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqher Ghalibaf arrived in Islamabad Friday ahead of Saturday’s peace talks with the United States, which Ghalibaf demanded accept Iran’s “preconditions” before talks could begin. Speaking from Islamabad, Ghalibaf claimed Iran had goodwill toward negotiations but no trust in the United States, adding that the Islamic Republic was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported. Ghalibaf stated earlier that Tehran’s demands include a ceasefire in Lebanon, which Iran and mediating Pakistan have stated was...

The Iranian regime is once again proving why it cannot be trusted. Despite a delicate ceasefire agreement, Iran is already backsliding, attempting to choke off the world’s oil supply and reportedly shaking down tankers for “tolls” in the Strait of Hormuz. The Gateway Pundit reported on Wednesday that Fars News Agency, the official propaganda arm directly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that tanker traffic is now “suspended” after Israel continued hammering Hezbollah. PBS journalist Elizabeth Landers confirmed that President Trump told her directly: Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon is NOT part of the ceasefire deal.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO...

Megyn Kelly on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" discussed the damage sustained by the Trump political coalition, the global economy, and U.S. allies, after 40 days at war with Iran. “The question is now not, who has Trump lost. The question is who remains," she said about the MAGA coalition. "He’s underwater with men, including young men and young people. The young person coalition that Charlie Kirk delivered to the president is gone. They’ve abandoned Donald Trump." "These battles in the Middle East have been fought now for 20-plus years, and we continue to learn the same lesson over and over. It’s...

Top aides have privately made the case to President Trump in recent days that Iran’s power-generating facilities and bridges are legitimate military targets because destroying them could cripple the country’s missile and nuclear programs, officials say. Trump embraced the rationale, sharply questioned by legal experts and human-rights groups, in a nationwide address Wednesday when he vowed to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages.” By Saturday, as an urgent rescue mission was under way to find a missing U.S. aviator whose aircraft was shot down in Iran, the president showed no signs of backing down on the new strategy. “Remember...

A Kuwaiti oil tanker off the coast of Dubai was set ablaze Tuesday after being struck by an Iranian drone, according to reports. The fully-loaded Al Salmi tanker suffered damage to its hull and firefighters battled to control the flames, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The 24 people on board the vessel were rescued and there were no oil spills, the Dubai government confirmed. Officials are now investigating the scale of the damage caused to the vessel, which has been in operation since 2011. The strike comes as oil prices continue to fluctuate while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed....

President Trump shared jaw-dropping video footage Monday of a massive explosion in Iran reportedly caused by a US airstrike on a large ammunition depot in Isfahan. A “high volume” of 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs was used in the strike posted by Trump on Truth Social, a US official told the Wall Street Journal. The footage that caught the president’s eye is one of several videos of fiery blasts that have taken place in Isfahan, the country’s third-most populous city and the location of the majority of Tehran’s 60% enriched uranium as well as a sprawling “missile city”.

It's hard to imagine greater courage than taking to the streets to protest against a heavily armed repressive regime that is willing to kill you in cold blood. For the more than 35,000 - and up to 80,000 Iranians who paid with their lives for showing this courage in January, the hope now is that they did not die in vain. Yet as the war the war enters its third week, the dreams of so many Iranians that their odious regime will collapse are hanging in the balance. The joint US-Israeli attacks have done much to weaken the regime militarily,...

President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is not going well. He began the conflict with a promise to use an air campaign to initiate regime change in as little as “two or three days.” But about three weeks in, Iran’s government, military and security forces remain highly functional. No popular uprising has emerged. And Iran’s government has seized control of the Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil prices surging and Trump into a panic. Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, is one of the analysts who saw this situation coming a long way off. An expert...

Iran says it is targeting Dimona, which houses Israel’s main nuclear research center, as a “response” to an earlier strike on the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. The Israel Defense Forces said it was not responsible for striking Natanz.

History offers a recurring pattern that conventional history tends not to recognize: governments overreach abroad, miscalculate badly, and the resulting strain — financial, political, and psychological — comes home to roost in the form of unrest, rebellion, or outright civil war. The public is usually fed lofty justifications at the outset, but in the aftermath, real consequences expose hidden, deeper structural weaknesses. France in the late 18th century. The monarchy’s heavy involvement in foreign wars—most notably the Seven Years’ War and then the expensive intervention in the American Revolution—left the country financially crippled. While the American venture is celebrated as...

The Data Analytics Center at the Institute for National Security Studies presents a real-time situation report on the military campaign against Iran. The report includes a dedicated dashboard featuring selected data, accompanied by an interactive map depicting the situation on the ground. The data is updated continuously and as accurately as possible, based on intelligence assessments, open-source information, and media reports.

Russia has delivered more than 13 tons of emergency medical supplies to Iran via Azerbaijan, as the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel intensifies. The aid package, consisting primarily of medicines and essential hospital equipment, was dispatched on the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin to address urgent healthcare shortages following weeks of heavy bombardment. The humanitarian shipment was transported by a specialised Il-76 aircraft from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry to Azerbaijan, from where it was transferred to the Iranian Red Crescent Society for final delivery. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the aid was...

Iran's leadership and its triad of threats: nuclear ambiguity, surging missiles, and drone swarms – the very real hegemonic danger that extended far beyond the Middle East.For years, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Iran nuclear deal—was sold as a historic diplomatic achievement that blocked Iran's path to a nuclear weapon for a generation. Supporters praised it as pragmatic restraint. Critics, including myself, saw it for what it really was: a temporary pause that let Iran preserve its nuclear infrastructure, accelerate its military capabilities, and wait out the sunset clauses.The deal was never designed to be permanent. Many...

Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of...

Expats claim they will leave Dubai and never return as they fear for their lives and see their businesses destroyed while missiles continue to rain down over the United Arab Emirates. Once a tax-free haven attracting influencers from across the globe and thousands of Brits seeking warm weather and crime free streets, Dubai's carefully crafted image has been shattered and residents believe it is 'finished'. The emirate, home to around 240,000 British expats including Rio and Kate Ferdinand, Luisa Zissman and Petra Ecclestone, has been targeted by constant Iranian missile and drone attacks as the regime strikes US allies in...

For decades, Iran cultivated a myth of invincibility through terror and proxies—until war exposed the regime as weaker, poorer, and far more fragile than the world had feared. Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming...

Once war begins and American soldiers are under fire, a rational discussion of the pros and cons of war becomes nearly impossible. That is exactly why our Founders wrote a Constitution that demands a debate before the initiation of war. But there was no debate in Congress, let alone a vote. On Feb. 28, Americans awoke to discover that their country was once again embroiled in a war in the Middle East. Americans were not asked if they would bear the burdens of war. Instead, the American people were told, through a presidential eight-minute video posted around 2:30 in the...

Some of the supposed character “flaws” of @realDonaldTrump are precisely those that are needed to be a courageous and bold global leader." Gad Saad You’ve got to think: if the US military can pinpoint one room in Teheran with a Grand Ayatollah and 39 other high officials in it, then the US military can figure out where Iran’s missiles are being launched from and put a stop to that, too. With no high command left, Iran’s missile batteries have been on their own since Saturday, desperately trying a kind of last-ditch “Samson option” to light up the whole region and...

Stena Bulk has confirmed that a commercial vessel hit in an Iranian missile attack in Bahrain early on Monday was one of its own ships, known to be in the employ of the US Navy. TradeWinds reported that the vessel hit in the strike that left one Asian maritime worker dead and two seriously injured, could be the US-flagged, 49,800-dwt Stena Imperative (built 2016).