Free Republic

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?

The Ukrainian ambassador covered her face when Zelensky CONTINUOUSLY tried speaking over Trump and Vance in the Oval Office She knows it’s ALL over. Great job, Dictator Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will give a live interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier just hours after his disastrous meeting in the Oval Office Friday with President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance over ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. The interview is scheduled to air at 6 p.m. EST on the Fox News Channel. Trump ordered Zelensky out of the White House, canceling a lunch and press conference that was meant to mark the signing of a mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine, after Zelensky argued with Trump and Vance for several minutes over the war and...

The media is hyping up outrage over the fact that UN’s World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was at a Houthi airport in Yemen during Israel’s retaliation against the Islamic terrorist group over its attacks on Israel. The Houthis have spent over a year attacking international shipping, holding hostages, including from the UN, and generally following Tehran’s orders to terrorize as much of the world as they can reach. (All of this was enabled by Biden’s decision to drop support for the Saudi campaign against them and dismantle the Trump measures set up to control Houthi Islamic terrorism.) The...

Now that the dust has settled from Israel's Oct. 26 retaliatory strikes on Iran, Jerusalem's road to victory is finally taking shape. And despite the difficulties, the Israel Defense Forces is more determined than ever to restore peace to the citizens of the Jewish state. On today’s episode, JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum and Mark Regev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom—both former advisers at the Prime Minister's Office—discuss all the latest developments in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon and where they think things may be heading. All this and more on “Israel Undiplomatic!” Transcript linked below video.

EXCLUSIVE: A bipartisan pair of senators is introducing a new bill on the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords to deepen cooperation between U.S. and Middle East partners. "In the face of emboldened Iranian aggression, I’m deepening the historic partnerships created through the Abraham Accords four years ago today," said Ernst. "More cooperation among our Middle East partners is what Tehran fears. The LINK Act accomplishes this by coordinating military planning and creating a permanent and effective defense alliance. By working hand-in-hand with our partners, the strength and security of our nations grows." The Biden administration recently lifted a hold...

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.” Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.” In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison...

Mexican diplomats in the United States blatantly meddle in U.S. internal politics. They protect illegal aliens,promote illegal immigration,campaign against U.S. legislation, promote dual citizenship, and strive to win the loyalty of Mexican-Americans born in the United States. Mexico has 52 (!) Mexican consulates on U.S. soil. Meddling is official Mexican government policy. This is all totally in the open, yet almost nobody in the U.S. government complains about it. But this would never occur in the conservative red state of Oklahoma, with its conservative governor, now would it? Until May of 2023, there was no Mexican consulate in Oklahoma, and...

OPINION China’s recent outcry over the alleged breach of ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ with the Philippines reveals a profound irony, given the history of its coercion and deceit There is a huge amount of insincerity and gall involved in the Chinese complaint that the Philippines had torn up the bilateral ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ between Beijing and Manila. While the term ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ has an implicit assumption of ‘trust’ as a fundamental tenet besting a relationship, which may otherwise not be legally binding -- to even imagine that there has been any element of ‘trust’ between these two sparing countries, is to put oneself...

CNN — President Joe Biden on Wednesday called close US ally Japan “xenophobic” at a Washington, D.C., fundraiser, just weeks after lauding the US-Japan alliance at a state dinner. The president made the remark at the off-camera event while arguing that Japan, along with India, Russia and China, would perform better economically if the countries embraced immigration more.

On Monday’s edition of NBC’s “MTP Now,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) said that the only way to have success against Hamas is through diplomacy and “Hamas is much more than a military organization, it’s a movement. And the manner in which Israel has conducted this war is a recruiting tool for Hamas. So, they’re really not accomplishing what they want to do if the destruction occurs at the level it has so far. They need to be much more surgical and tactical.” Quigley stated, “[A]ny success there is going to be done diplomatically. So, those efforts to get a ceasefire...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is vowing to retaliate in a dramatic escalation of tensions after it said the United States had demanded Beijing close its consulate in Houston. Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US made the demand on Tuesday and described the US move as “unprecedented escalation”. Wang said the Chinese embassy and consulates in the US had received both explosives and death threats recently. “China demands the US revoke the wrong decision. If the US went ahead, China would take necessary counter measures,” Wang said. Wang’s disclosure came after Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of The Global Times, said on...

Henry Kissinger, who died on Wednesday night at the age of 100, was the most enduringly influential secretary of state in the history of the United States. He was also the most controversial. But the influence matters far more than the controversy. His critics have wasted no time in ignoring the old injunction that no ill should be spoken of the recently deceased. The scurrilous magazine Rolling Stone led with the repulsive headline 'Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies'. At a time when anti-Semitism has again reared its ugly head in the wake of the...

The truth is that China’s maritime provocations in the South China Sea will continue until war ensues.As America, and much of the world, remains focused on conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to ramp up its bellicose actions in the South China Sea and in the waters and airspace around Taiwan.The PRC’s use of water cannons — capable of inflicting fatal injuries — against Philippine resupply vessels seeking to reach a Philippine outpost in Philippine waters; engaging in dangerous maneuvers at sea and in the air; and aggressively employing “gray-zone” tactics with...

Hamas thanked Vladimir Putin for his support for the “Palestinian cause” as the terror group released a Russian hostage from the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon. It said its release of a Russian citizen from the war-ravaged territory was made in appreciation of the position taken by Moscow’s position on the conflict with Israel. “In response to the efforts of Russian president Putin and in appreciation of the Russian position in support of the Palestinian cause, we released a detainee who holds Russian citizenship,” Hamas said.

No matter the distance or the weather, Jane Christensen was determined to see the giant pandas before they left Washington. Now in her 60s, Christensen told AFP she had been captured by the species' magical cuteness over a half-century ago, when China first gifted two pandas to the United States. "I've had 'panda-monium' ever since," she said under a chilly rain outside the Smithsonian National Zoo's panda exhibit, hundreds of miles from her home in Michigan. All three of the zoo's pandas are leaving for China by the end of the year, bringing at least a temporary end to a...

New York -- The US is “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India on the killing of a Khalistani separatist in Canada, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said and Washington was "closely coordinating" with Ottawa on the issue and wants to see "accountability" in the case. Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation. “Let me say a few things about this. First, we are deeply...