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The British government’s plans to hand control of the strategically significant Chagos Islands to Mauritius are set to be signed off on Thursday, after an 11th-hour legal injunction failed to stop an effort that has been intensely controversial in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to return the islands to the African country, while maintaining control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base, and the deal is expected be finalized on Thursday. It comes after a High Court judge briefly blocked the move in a ruling made at 2 a.m. local time (9...

This weekend, the US and Iran will hold their first semi-direct talks in years, despite the previous insistence of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in barring such talks. What changed? First, the Iranian security situation has degraded rapidly over the last few months, thanks to their stupidity in attacking Israel directly as well as indirectly through their proxies. That has left the mullahs more exposed than ever before in their 46-year run as theocratic tyrants in Iran. That's not the only reason, the New York Times reports today. The Iranians may have finally realized that Donald Trump returned to office with the...

Russia said Thursday that any attacks on its ally Iran would be unacceptable and illegal, warning of irreversible consequences if the U.S. were to bomb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned President Trump’s threat to bomb Iran if a deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is not reached, reiterating its support for Iran’s program.“The use of military force by Iran’s opponents in the context of the settlement is illegal and unacceptable,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. “Threats from outside to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure facilities will inevitably lead to an irreversible global catastrophe....

And there are those who still argue Iran shouldn’t negotiate to reduce its nuclear profile. This is literally becoming a question of Iran’s existential survival.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned the United Kingdom that it could damage its relationship with the United States if it threatens the future of the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia by ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Key excerpts of the speech are below: “Do you know who is loving all of this? China, because China has a close relationship with Mauritius. And do you know what? It is going to get a lot closer. “This is insane. This is cell-deep stupid. This is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid. Because the United Nations...

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to give away sovereign territory in the Indian Ocean which contains a strategically critical U.S. base is so “stupid” he must be on drugs to consider it, a Republican Senator says. President Trump and the new U.S. Secretary of State (foreign affairs minister) Marco Rubio have been briefed on the Chagos Islands situation created by the British government, says U.S. Republican Senator from Louisiana John Kennedy — no relation to President John Kennedy — and that the dictates of the United Nations should be ignored. Reminding others on the Senate floor (1hr 55m)...

Saddam bids to challenge case in the US LONDON (AFP) - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) is preparing a legal challenge in the United States to his trial for war crimes, a newspaper reports, citing leaked papers prepared by his defense team. Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer, has prepared a 50-page brief which contains advice to take the case to US courts to ensure he receives a fair trial, the Sunday Times reported after saying it had seen the document. there's more here @ Free Republic...  and here Free Republic Post ... The...

BALI bombing mastermind Hambali has told interrogators how al-Qaida funded the attack that killed 202, including 88 Australians, a year ago today. The terrorist is being held under strict security by US intelligence agents on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, also has told agents al-Qaida wanted to build a bio-weapons plant in Indonesia to produce weapons to deliver the deadly biological agent anthrax. He revealed that the Islamic network of terrorist cells known as Jemaah Islamiah had recruited American-trained scientist Yazid Sufaat to oversee the project. He has studied chemistry at California...

The Telegraph understands that Mr Musk has significant concerns about the UK’s Online Safety Act, which requires social media companies including X – which he owns – to regulate their content. Scrapping or amending the legislation may become a key request of Mr Trump when he enters trade negotiations with Britain next year. Mr Trump’s team has warned that the UK must choose between a closer trade relationship with either the US or the EU, suggesting that talks could end with tariffs of up to 20 per cent on UK exports if the incoming president is not placated. Mr Farage...

The deal on the Chagos Islands ends a battle over Britain’s last overseas territory in Africa and preserves the Diego Garcia air base but has been criticized as aiding China. Britain said Thursday that it would cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal it said secured the future of the UK-U.S. Diego Garcia military base, and which could also pave the way for people displaced decades ago to return home. President Joe Biden welcomed the deal, saying it would secure the effective operation of Diego Garcia, a strategically important air base in the Indian Ocean, into...

Britain’s left-wing government announced a plan on Thursday to surrender sovereignty of a British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean that has hosted an important joint U.S.-UK military base and listening post for the past 50 years. The United Kingdom is giving the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, from whom it bought the archipelago in the 1960s. The announcement is the latest development in years of sovereignty claims by Mauritius, now drifting into China’s sphere of influence, which until recently were not even recognised as legitimate by the UK or its allies. Just last week, President of Mauritius Prithvirajsing Roopun barracked...

Could the U.S. rest easy if its only military base in the Indian Ocean were under the sovereign authority of an African government instead of the U.K.? At center stage is Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a critical hub for U.S. forces. The base is the sole reason that the U.K. clings onto the 58 small Indian Ocean isles that make up the Chagos Archipelago, of which Diego Garcia is the largest. For decades, London has made Diego Garcia available to the Pentagon on the most favorable terms imaginable: no rent, few restrictions and little oversight. The island is an...

The Chagos Islands may be little more than specks in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but they are at the center of a looming diplomatic row over a key American military base and the rise of Chinese power. Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic have raised fears that the British government's decision to begin negotiations to hand over the islands to Mauritius could allow China the chance to build its own military facility on the archipelago — right under the nose of American forces at Diego Garcia. The issue is one of the most important strategic locations in...

New satellite imagery, which The War Zone exclusively obtained from Planet Labs, shows two B-52s at the U.S. air base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where they are out of the reach of Iranian missiles. These are the first of six of the bombers that the U.S. military is deploying to the remote base amid heightened tensions with Iran and now in the wake of unprecedented Iranian missile strikes targeting U.S. forces in Iraq. The imagery in question is dated today, Jan. 8, 2019 at 11:09AM. The first reports that the U.S. Air Force was sending six B-52s...

Pope Francis has accused Britain of placing greed over humanity by refusing to hand over a disputed island archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. In an unusually muscular foreign policy intervention, the pope suggested that Britain’s failure to heed a United Nations vote calling on it relinquish sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory was uncivilised. “Not all things that are right for humanity are right for our pocket, but international institutions must be obeyed,” the pope told journalists as he left Mauritius at the end of a three-nation tour of Africa. “If there is an internal dispute or...

Full title: Future of controversial US military base Diego Garcia hangs in the balance after UN rules the Indian Ocean archipelago was illegally seized in the 1960s by Britain and should give be given back to Mauritius The future of a US military base constructed on a British territory in Mauritius has been thrown into doubt after a United Nations ruling on Monday. The UN's high court has ordered the United Kingdom to give the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius after an investigation revealed they'd been seized under illegal pretenses during the 1960s and 70s. This could, however, also cause...

It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account. The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll:...

A second senior airline industry source has revealed his belief that there is some sort of conspiracy behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. As The Herald Sun reports, Emirates president and CEO Sir Tim Clark made world headlines in October when he revealed his doubts about the fate of the missing plane, which disappeared early in the morning of March 8 this year. Now a second senior airline industry source has voiced his doubts about the fate of the plane, with the even wilder claim that the Boeing 777 may have been shot down by US military personnel...

'U.S. military shot down MH370 because they thought it had been hacked and was about to be used in terror attack', claims former airline boss Marc Dugain says U.S. Navy in Indian Ocean attacked the plane He claims that islanders saw the plane fly close to a U.S. base Also alleges that a spy told him to back away from his probe into MH370 A former airline boss and writer claims the U.S. downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 because the military feared it had been taken over by hackers and was about to be used in a 9/11-style attack. Marc...

A top Iranian defense official's claim that a U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean is now within missile range served both as a threat to American interests and a revelation that, if true, Tehran has doubled its striking distance. "In the event of an irrational attack by the U.S., America's military bases will not be safe from our missiles, whether in Bahrain or at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean," the senior official, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser Mojtaba Zonnour, was quoted as saying to Iran's "Defa Moghadas," or Holy Defense.