Free Republic

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has formalized two major energy agreements with U.S. firms HKN Energy and WesternZagros in Washington, D.C., Kurdish media reported on Monday, in deals valued at a combined $110 billion, despite a legal showdown with the federal government of Iraq over control of the country’s oil exports... ...The deals were formalized during KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's official visit to the United States this week... ...Washington has been advocating for the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, which have been stalled since March 2023 due to legal disputes and pipeline shutdowns. Washington's push aims...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the Syrian transitional authority may be weeks away from potential collapse and full-scale civil war, defending US President Donald Trump's decision to lift Syria sanctions and to engage with the Damascus government. "It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they're facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

BB Netanyahu's message after Speaking to Donald Trump about Iran, Hezbollah, and the Hostages.

In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday that a natural gas company's standard survey of the Eastern Mediterranean floor had uncovered the most ancient ship ever found in the deep seas.The discovery of the remains of the ship from the 14th-13th century BCE proves that Late Bronze Age mariners could navigate the seas without a line of sight to the shore, contrary to what was previously believed, the IAA said.The approximately 3,300-year-old ship with a cargo of hundreds of intact amphorae was found 90 kilometers off northern Israel's coast, at a depth of 1.8 km...The exciting...

The head of the Shiite Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened to expand his war against Israel in a speech on Wednesday, boasting that he allegedly has 100,000 terrorists at his disposal and suggesting war with Cyprus may also be imminent. Hezbollah, one of many Iranian proxy terrorist organizations, has long maintained ties with the Sunni jihadist group Hamas. The group has expanded its attacks on Israel since October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented invasion of Israel that resulted in an estimated 1,200 deaths, the abduction of about 250 people, and widespread torture, rape, and other atrocities....

Greece will ban bottom trawling in all of its marine protected areas by 2030, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday making the the country the first in Europe to announce such a ban. Speaking at the Our Ocean Conference in Athens, he said the country would become the first to bring an end to the damaging fishing practice in these protected areas. It will be banned in Greece’s three national marine parks – one of which is the largest in the East Mediterranean Sea – by 2026 with the rest following before the end of the decade. Bottom...

Since Hamas’s brutal attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, tensions and hostilities across the Middle East have reached fever pitch. And with such a complex regional crisis playing out, it should not come as a surprise that the Biden administration is reconsidering its military priorities in the region.It should be cause for significant concern, however, that this could involve a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no...

Russia expresses its most serious concern at the sharp aggravation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. "We call on the Palestinian and Israeli sides to implement an immediate ceasefire, renounce violence, exercise the necessary restraint and establish, with the assistance of the international community, a negotiation process aimed at establishing a comprehensive, lasting and long-awaited peace in the Middle East," she said in a statement.

Both the Obama and Biden administrations have had two obsessions that have proven to be erroneous but continue to persist. One is the belief that the Palestinians are the key to Arab Israeli peace. Former President Barack Obama had spent eight years pursuing efforts to push Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, including freezing settlement expansion for almost a full year. At the same time, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas climbed on a high tree and refused to come down and negotiate. President Joe Biden has been less preoccupied with the Palestinians since other priorities emerged that made...

Operations at Ceyhan, a major oil export terminal on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, have been suspended as a precaution. Ceyhan receives crude from two major cross-border pipelines — the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries oil from fields offshore Azerbaijan across Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, while the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline transports oil from northern Iraq. A spokesman for northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government said operations at Ceyhan will resume once an inspection has been finalised. Turkish pipeline operator Botas said neither pipeline has been damaged. The Ceyhan terminal exported just over 1mn b/d of crude in January, according to Vortexa. This included around...

Led by a respected former PM, and given a lot of resources by the Russian State, meet the Imperial Orthodox Palestine SocietyThe Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, a humanitarian NGO founded in Russia 140 years ago, now plays a key role in expanding Russian influence in the Middle East and beyond. As relations between Russia and the Western world plunge, Middle East and African countries engage in developing ties with Moscow. It is also quite remarkable that this rapprochement is based not so much on political foundations as on the common values and moral foundations. The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS)...

Senior Hamas Official Mahmoud Al-Zahar: The “Army of Jerusalem” Will Not Liberate Palestinian Land Only; the 512 Million Square Kilometers of Planet Earth Will Come Under a System with No Zionism, No Treacherous Christianity #Hamas #Palestinians.

Preparing for any potential war against Iran, the Biden administration has formally elevated Israel in military planning.... ...For the Pentagon, Israel is the most prized military and intelligence partner in the Middle East, with its vast combat experience and advanced technologies. With the end of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with the brokering of the Abraham Accords by the Trump administration, Washington sees an opportunity to incorporate Israel into a new regional alliance. ... ..."CENTCOM will now work to implement the U.S. Government commitment to a holistic approach to regional security and cooperation with our partners," the Tampa-based command...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

America’s Lebanese fantasy hits a road-bump Lebanon Follow Tony Badran Published: 13 December ,2022: 12:39 PM GST Updated: 13 December ,2022: 01:25 PM GST For the past two years, the Biden administration has been hell-bent on getting Saudi Arabia to underwrite the US project of administering Lebanon. And for two years running, the Kingdom has refused, having no desire to bankroll an Iranian equity run by Hezbollah. The administration, however, is demanding US allies suspend disbelief and pretend that Lebanon is in fact a real, normal state. In the latest iteration of its Lebanese project, the Biden team is trying...

Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu said Wednesday that a normalization agreement between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is within reach and would effectively “end the Arab-Israeli conflict.” The latest statement from the Prime Minister comes as the new conservative coalition vows to confront terrorism in the Middle East and strengthen alliances with Arab allies. Speaking from Israel at an online event hosted by Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center, Netanyahu reminded an online audience of nearly 300 people that the Abraham Accords were negotiated by the former Trump administration when he was Israel’s prime minister. The Accords normalized...

Rich countries must sign a pact with poor countries on the climate or "we will be doomed" - that's the warning from UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres. Speaking ahead of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, Mr Guterres said wealthier countries must help emerging economies to speed up their transition to renewable energy. "COP27 must be the place to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap," he said. "It must put us back on track to cutting emissions, boosting climate resilience and adaptation, keeping the promise on climate finance and address loss and damage from climate change."...

Former prime minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become Israel's next prime minister, according to Tuesday night's exit polls. According to the polls, Netanyahu's bloc, which includes Likud, Religious Zionist Party (RZP), United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, crossed the 61-seat threshold and will be able to form the next coalition. In some of the polls his bloc reached 62 seats. What do the exit polls say? Netanyahu's Likud party is expected to receive 30 seats according to Channel 12 and 31 seats according to Channel 13, while Lapid's Yesh Atid party is expected to get 24...

The United Nations General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace that affect the international community, voted 152-5, on Friday, on a resolution concerning "the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East". The resolution states that Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency's purview. The resolution, which is submitted every year to the UNGA in New York, was submitted by Egypt and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and 19 counties including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates. Canada, Israel,...

Politics in the state of Israel has never been more complex. One coalition is held together by the slimmest of reeds: opposition to one man — Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a collection of liberal, conservative, and Arab parties that was formed primarily to defeat Netanyahu last year with Yair Lapid as its leader. Some oppose the two-time former prime minister for his alleged corruption. Others blanch at his policies in the Palestinian territories. But because the only real unifying factor for the opposition is hatred of Netanyahu, the governing coalition lasted only a few months. Netanyahu’s Likud coalition is a mish-mash...