Free Republic

The United States has temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil, a boost to the Kremlin as Washington tries to contain energy prices sent soaring by the American-Israeli assault on Iran. President Vladimir Putin’s team welcomed the move to ease penalties that were imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and pushed Friday for the U.S. to go further. The decision caused dismay in Europe, where officials feared it would give a timely boost to the Moscow war machine on their doorstep as attention shifts to the Middle East. The announcement failed to immediately calm oil prices, which have spiraled since Tehran...

President Donald Trump’s critics claim he has taken the United States to war in Iran with no coherent endgame in mind, while some of his own skittish advisers are urging him to end the war prematurely. Both are wrong. Operation Epic Fury is on its way to a massive success. A patient Trump can achieve what no modern president before him came anywhere close to: the irreversible elimination of the Iranian threat. By contrast, if victory is not decisive, Iran’s surviving leaders could conclude that America lost its nerve and was too weak to defeat them. So, what is the...

Vance, who has long questioned U.S. intervention abroad, has publicly defended Trump’s Iran operation. But White House officials revealed that the vice president made his opposition known in the leadup, pulling the curtain open after months of speculation about Vance being far more tepid about military action than Trump.Vance is “skeptical,” is “worried about success” and “just opposes” the war on Iran, a senior Trump official said via text message. The official was granted anonymity to speak about the vice president’s views.A second senior Trump official said “his role is to provide the president and the administration, you know, all...

The FBI has warned California’s governor and law enforcement agencies about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack targeting the state due to information acquired last month. The bureau authorities issued the alert at the end of February, which noted that they had information that, as of earlier that month, before the current Middle East war, Iran sought to “conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland,” according to ABC News.

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration, the sources said. And now it may be weeks before the administration’s efforts to alleviate the intensifying economic fallout take hold, officials said Thursday, including high-risk naval escorts of oil tankers through the strait that the Pentagon...

As fascinating as drone warfare can be — particularly the seemingly sci-fi drone-vs-drone variety — keeping up with all the developments is a fool's errand. Yesterday's hot new thing is practically outdated today, and today's hot new thing may look obsolete tomorrow. That's an exaggeration, of course, but some days it doesn't seem like much of one. That's why today's news about Ukraine's Sting counter-drone caught my eye, and what it might mean for U.S. and other Western forces going forward. I vaguely remembered reading something about the Sting a year or more ago, but I just learned today that...

During the first hour of Operation Epic Fury, Iran's Islamic government was obliterated. An Israeli airstrike struck a leadership meeting at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound in Tehran around 8 a.m. (Tehran time) on February 28. Not only was Khameini killed, but the casualty list included about 40 other senior officials who could reasonably be in the line of succession. In fact, it seems as though the mullahs have elected one of the victims of the airstrike, Mojtaba Khamenei, as their Grand Poohbah. He hasn't been seen (White House Trolls Iran As Regime Tries to Hide ‘Supreme Leader’ Condition – RedState)...

Global energy markets are bracing for a potential supply shock after Iran’s new Supreme Leader vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed while attacks on commercial ships intensified across the Persian Gulf. In his first public comments since taking power, Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a stark warning about the future of the conflict and the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz.Khamenei said Thursday that the maritime corridor must remain closed as leverage against Iran’s enemies.“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz should continue as a tool to pressure the enemy,” he said in televised...

“World War III” is not a phrase to be casually tossed around, yet declaring its impending eruption has become a staple of political punditry. The current war in the Middle East is no different. The British media has debated how their country could get sucked into World War III if it allowed U.S. aircraft to use British air bases on their way to bomb Iran. In 2022 and 2023, figures including John Mearsheimer, Tucker Carlson, and Elon Musk warned that helping Ukraine fight Russia would set off a global conflagration. A recent poll conducted by Politico found that a majority...

As the joint American-Israeli military campaign in Iran continues, President Trump’s coalition is starting to exhibit some cracks. The war in Iran has emerged as a proxy battle over a broader, long-simmering conflict within the right about Israel. And the fight over Israel is, in some important ways, a proxy battle about Jews in general. Big picture, what we’re seeing now is that the traditional divisions on the right between paleoconservatives and neoconservatives, between hawks and doves, are being reshaped into a battle over Israel specifically. It’s a very difficult subject; this issue has become highly emotional and personal for...

Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf channel that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil, according to U.S. officials, an effort that could further complicate American efforts to restart shipping there. While the U.S. military said it had destroyed larger Iranian naval vessels that could be used to quickly lay mines in the strait, Iran began using smaller boats for the operation on Thursday, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence.

Britain is now militarily incapable of defending the Falkland Islands, a leading Argentinian international relations expert has warned, declaring its power “practically nonexistent” and reigniting concerns over the UK’s ability to protect its overseas territories. Carlos Perez Llana, former Argentine ambassador to France and a respected academic, delivered the stark verdict while analysing Europe’s faltering role in the escalating Middle East crisis involving the United States, Israel and Iran. Speaking on the Argentinian current affairs programme Modo Fontevecchia, broadcast on Net TV and Radio Perfil, Mr Perez Llana said: “It’s plausible to think that today Great Britain couldn’t defend the...

Iran’s military has shown off its enormous supply of naval suicide drones, which it is using to blockade the crucial Strait of Hormuz, in chilling footage taken from its underground “missile city.” Footage from Iranian state media purportedly shows underground tunnels full of naval drones, anti-ship missiles, and sea mines, with dramatic footage also showing some of them being fired. Experts have analyzed the footage, released by Iranian state media outlet Fars, telling CNN exactly what is being shown off. The full terrifying array of armory on display includes: Abadil-2/3 “kamikaze” drones: Shown on rail launchers inside the tunnels, these...

"Israeli Special Ops veteran Aaron Cohen breaks down President Donald Trump’s ‘uncertain warfare’ strategy against Iran, detailing how U.S. pressure and the Navy’s Fifth Fleet presence are rattling Iranian leaders on ‘Kudlow.’"

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been injured but is feeling well, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper. More than 1,800 people have died and at least 12,500 have been injured in Iran, Lebanon, and Israel since the escalation of the Middle East conflict began, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. - Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is feeling fine after being wounded, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. - He noted that three or four individuals had vied for the post,...

Conventional military thought, derived from the writings of Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, dictates that one identify the enemy’s center of gravity, then “concentrate all energy against it.” For the Islamic Republic of Iran, it center of gravity — “the source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act” — is its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose principal mission is to keep the regime in power. While the U.S. and Israeli militaries have systematically dismantled Iran’s conventional military and nuclear ambitions — the direct threat to them — they have left the...

The United States just delivered one of the most significant demonstrations of adaptive military capability in modern history 6 min video As coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran continue, one thing is clear: this is not the kind of war we have spent decades planning for. There are no massed formations or carrier battle groups trading salvos. This conflict is being fought with swarms of relatively inexpensive, one-way drones. Adaptation and rapid innovation now determine how conflicts are fought. Iran has spent years perfecting saturation warfare. The concept is straightforward: flood the sky with enough drones and missiles to...

Citizens of China, Iran, and Russia made close to 30,000 trips to sensitive American research facilities during the Biden administration, new data show. Between Sept. 1, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2024, 28,028 Chinese nationals, 304 Iranians, and 1,608 Russians visited laboratories run by the Department of Energy, according to the office of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). “While Iran’s regime chanted ‘Death to America,’ the Biden administration rolled out the red carpet for Iranian foreign nationals to enter our National Labs,” Ernst told The Post. “They also gave entry to thousands of Chinese nationals and hundreds of Russians, who could then...

When anti-regime protests spread like wildfire throughout Iran in mid-October of 2022, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was quick to lay the blame on the usual foreign suspects. “I say explicitly that these riots and this insecurity were a design by the U.S. and the occupying, fake Zionist regime and those who are paid by them,” he told a class of cadets at a police college in Tehran. He suggested that the ultimate goal of the U.S. and Israel was regime change in Iran. This elicited a response on Twitter from Iranian rapper Hichkas, who defended foreign support for...

Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals have inched closer to a majority in the Canadian parliament as a fourth MP defected to join the party. Lori Idlout, a member of the left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), joined Carney after "much personal reflection", the Liberals said in a statement. "At this turning point in our history, I am ready to work with (Carney) to build a strong future for Nunavut and for all of Canada," Idlout said. Floor crossings are allowed in Canada's Westminster parliamentary system, and have occurred more than 300 times since confederation in 1867. Carney, leading a minority government, is...