Free Republic

The United States is resuming operations at its embassy in Caracas after a seven-year hiatus, citing a “new chapter” in diplomatic ties with Venezuela, the State Department said Monday. The reopening “will strengthen our ability to engage directly with Venezuela’s interim government, civil society, and the private sector,” the department said in a statement, calling it a “key milestone” in implementing President Donald Trump’s plan for Venezuela since the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. Ambassador Laura F. Dogu, the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela who arrived in Caracas in January, will lead the effort to reestablish...

Whether real or not, President Donald Trump’s statement that Iran has reached out for talks is already having an impact: fueling mistrust within Tehran leadership while easing tensions in global oil markets, even as Iranian officials deny any such contact.President Trump said on Monday that Iran had reached out to Washington for talks after the US threatened to strike Iranian energy infrastructure. He said, “They called, I didn’t call. They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make a deal.” He also claimed that the United States had been speaking to “a top person” in Iran,...

On Friday night, Donald Trump announced that America was “very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle East.” He even pinned the announcement to the top of his Truth Social account to make sure everyone realized he meant it. That did little to settle the markets over the weekend, however, so this morning he took to Truth Social again to go further in ALL CAPS: I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD...

Diplomacy is not surrender, and talking to an opponent is not a reward for good behavior. In dealings with China, Russia, or Iran, U.S. diplomatic initiatives must always be measured not by the process or optics—or by whether they support an abstract goal—but by whether the outcome results in greater or weaker constraints on a rival’s ability to harm us and our interests. Does it increase or decrease his dependency on us? Does it aid or complicate his ability to concentrate military power against us? Does it ease or impede his path of conquest?A corollary has to do with allies....

Diplomacy is an instrument of strategy that great powers use to survive and gain an advantage in competition with other powerful states. Excellence in diplomacy is a vital prerequisite to the success and endurance of great powers. Diplomatic skills atrophied in the United States after the end of the Cold War, as we came to rely on military technology and economic sanctions as the main tools of our foreign policy. But now we are entering a dangerous age in which great powers are competing for the things they have competed over from the beginning of time: territory, resources, influence, and...

This could be a major step forward in the fate of a certain South American nation: The United States and Venezuela have reportedly agreed to resume diplomatic and consular relations. The first indication came from News Nation White House Correspondent Kellie Meyer, in the form of a rather terse post on X.U.S. and Venezuela's interim authorities agree to re-establish diplomatic and consular relations.— Kellie Meyer (@KellieMeyerNews) March 5, 2026This was followed by a U.S. News & World Report piece, which had (a few) more details.⁠The ⁠United States and ⁠interim authorities in Venezuela have agreed to re-establish diplomatic and consular ‌relations,...

Doha says it is ready to contribute to international efforts for de-escalation and dialogue regarding VenezuelaQatar said Saturday it is ready to contribute to any international effort aimed at reaching an “immediate peaceful solution” in Venezuela, calling for restraint and de-escalation. In a statement, the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed deep concern over developments in Venezuela, following US attacks on the capital, Caracas, and the detention of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The ministry urged all parties to exercise restraint, reduce tensions and pursue dialogue to address outstanding issues. It reaffirmed Qatar’s position in support of the UN...

Finland's prime minister apologised on Wednesday to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage by posting pictures of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures. The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party, which is part of the right-wing coalition government, posted images on social media where they pulled back the corners of their eyes -- widely seen as a racist gesture targeting East Asian people. They claimed to have shared the pictures in support of the 2025 Miss Finland, Sarah Dzafce, who was stripped of her title last week for posting a similar picture on social media in...

The Italian Renaissance gave birth to ballet, but Russians dominated the art to such a degree no one questioned their supremacy. The Bolshoi, the world’s reigning company, pirouetted onto U.S. stages in 1959 and 1962. The State Department-sponsored American Ballet Theatre (ABT) went east in 1960 followed two years later by the New York City Ballet (NYCB), led by its Russian émigré choreographer George Balanchine. Adding a thermonuclear layer of stress, the Cuban Missile Crisis ignited in October 1962 when the Bolshoi and the NYCB were in each other’s countries. Upstart Americans left home unproven underdogs…The New York Times feared...

If we are to properly set the conditions for a civilizational rebirth, we must accept that realistic rhetoric is the statecraft needed for renewal.Last week, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had signed off on the first phase of his Gaza peace plan — one of the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in years. For our nation and the world, this was a moment of rare convergence, of both clarity and action. While much of the world has grown accustomed to the language of stalemate and moral equivocation, Trump’s foreign policy achievements underscore a deeper...

71% of French citizens oppose immediate recognition of a Palestinian state before the release of hostages and the surrender of Hamas, according to a survey published by the council representing Jewish organizations in the country. Only 29% of French respondents support the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. The survey also found that 68% of the public views antisemitic acts not only as a threat to Jews in the country but as a broader threat to French society. By contrast, 19% stated that actions against the Jewish public in France over the Gaza conflict are legitimate. Notably, the share among...

Observation: Former President Trump’s response to recent events may appear measured on the surface, but it carries a sharp undertone of reckoning — particularly for Qatar, a long-time U.S. partner that has walked a fine line between diplomacy and duplicity. For years, Qatar has positioned itself as an impartial broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all while funneling support — financial and political — that has helped keep Hamas firmly in power in Gaza. Israel has long raised concerns about Qatar’s double game: projecting neutrality to the West while quietly propping up one of the most destabilizing forces in the region....

The combination of that weird summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin and the only slightly less bizarre gathering of NATO leaders in Washington, was the latest reminder that U.S. President Donald Trump is a terrible negotiator, a true master of the “art of the giveaway.” He doesn’t prepare, doesn’t have subordinates lay the groundwork beforehand, and arrives at each meeting not knowing what he wants or where his red lines are. He has no strategy and isn’t interested in the details, so he just wings it. As we learned during his first term, when he wasted time on those irrelevant...

Victor Davis Hanson breaks down what he calls the most sweeping political counter-revolution in modern American history—one that’s reshaping the military, the border, higher education, foreign policy, and the economy all at once. In this powerful analysis, Hanson paints a picture of a president who's not just reversing the progressive tide, but exposing it. Illegal immigration? Blocked. DEI and university corruption? Called out. Military recruitment? Rebuilt. Meanwhile, entrenched institutions are being forced to admit guilt—on antisemitism, on academic overreach, and on systemic rot. On the world stage, Trump is redefining diplomacy through strength—not surrender. Putin’s war machine and Hamas’ terror...

He’s a person who deserves a great deal more credit than he’s getting for ending a war that’s lasted for over three decades. In what may become one of the most significant diplomatic moments in recent African history, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda signed a sweeping peace agreement on June 27, 2025—and they did it in the Oval Office, no less, hosted by President Donald Trump. It’s a deal with real potential to end decades of devastating conflict, but what most people won’t see in the headlines is the man who made it possible behind the scenes:...

The president didn’t travel all that way for photo ops. But here’s the greatness that most analysts have missed. President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East was groundbreaking on many levels: economic, diplomatic, and strategic. In each of the countries he visited, he was greeted warmly by all the highest-ranking officials. He lined up billions in economic agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. However, Trump didn’t travel all that way for photo ops. Although the economic agreements are important, his boldest move was meeting with the new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa and the agreement to...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

WASHINGTON -- Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's historic trip to Crawford, Texas, this week ought to provoke Americans to plumb some of the deeper reasons behind the yawning U.S./Saudi estrangement. The "Arab street," according to every analyst here from the region, is increasingly anti-American. Their stories relate the skewed pictures most countries are getting about America -- from satellite-carried Israeli attacks on Palestinians to the often vulgar and sexually explicit American commercial TV programs sent around the world. But when one searches for the failure of American influence in the Middle East, one does not have to look far. We are...

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Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “a dumpster fire of diplomacy.” Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: You were one of the lawmakers who met with President Zelensky prior to that Oval Office meltdown. Senator Lindsey Graham later told reporters he had warned Zelensky, “don’t take the bait.” Do you think Zelensky took the bait? Is that how you understand what happened?