Free Republic

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now. What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies...

Global energy markets were put on alert after Iran temporarily restricted movement in parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most strategically important oil transit routes on Earth. The move came as Tehran simultaneously engaged in sensitive diplomatic talks with the United States over its nuclear program, underscoring how quickly geopolitical tensions in the Middle East can ripple through global markets. While the disruption was limited and short lived, investors, energy traders, and policymakers immediately focused on what the action signals about regional stability, oil supply risks, and the broader geopolitical chess match between Iran and the West....

The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.Why it matters: A U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month's pinpoint operation in Venezuela, sources say.The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities. Such a war would have...

China has become one of the closest and most important countries to Iran - but is now refraining from providing it with critical support. • Tehran expected expanded economic and political support, but Beijing is content with general and meaningless statements. • Chinese social media joked and criticized Iran: "Expect China to pay the price instead." Assaf Rosenzweig. N12 Published:01.14.26. Iran is in the midst of its most serious crisis in recent decades, and against the backdrop of the US and Israel's threats of attack, Tehran is trying to gather support from countries and powers close to it. As a...

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Monday rebuffed claims by US President Donald Trump that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites had been destroyed by US strikes in June. In a statement on his official website, Khamenei told Trump to “keep dreaming” over the comments on the sites’ destruction and questioned the US president’s right “to say what a country should or should not have if it possesses a nuclear industry.” For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran. The US briefly joined in,...

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In a stunning and unprecedented public rebuke that signals a deep and potentially significant crack in the facade of the "Axis of Resistance," a prominent and historically influential Iranian newspaper has declared that the Hamas-led "Al-Aqsa Storm" operation of October 7, 2023, was a "costly mistake" and a "definite mistake from the beginning" that has wasted decades of effort and brought nothing but devastation to the region.The scathing assessment, published in a detailed editorial by the Jomhouri-e Eslami newspaper on Sunday, argues that the two-year war sparked by the attack has produced no winners, but has instead...

KNOB NOSTER, MISSOURI — President Donald Trump shocked the world with his announcement on the evening of Saturday, June 21: the United States had successfully attacked three nuclear sites in Iran, and the B-2 bombers who had completed this incredibly secretive mission were on their way home. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors,” the president shared in a triumphant Truth Social post. “There is not another military in the World that could have done this.” It was an incredible victory for Trump 2.0 in more ways than one: Operation Midnight Hammer had been executed without a single leak to the...

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has criticised the UN's nuclear agency and accused western powers of "double standards" as he joined the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea for a military parade in Beijing. The Iranian leader was one of 26 heads of state in the Chinese capital for a once-a-decade event showcasing China’s growing firepower and diplomatic clout alongside its closest international allies. Mr Pezeshkian told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV he backed Beijing's drive to reform systems of global governing, which he said should take a multilateral and "justice-oriented" approach.

Australian intelligence agencies have discovered the Iranian Government directed at least two anti-Semitic attacks in Australia. Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had established the Iranian government was behind an October 20 attack on Bondi’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, and the December 6 fire bombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. The Australian government pulled its diplomats from Tehran and has moved to expel Iran’s ambassador to Australia. “ASIO assesses it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well,” the Prime Minister said. “I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary...

Israel attacks presidential palace, Egypt is moving with tanks and sh!t to block Palestinians fleeing Gaza via Rafah as Israel takes control of Gaza City, explosions in Iran, video of fat, happy kids in western Gaza eating at restaurants, playing arcades, etc., celebrating birthdays. Media won't show this, only bombed out shells of cities. Lots of contemporaneous phone videos of Gaza and Yemen. Transcript linked below video.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) on Saturday upped her crusade against conditions in the Gaza Strip following a declaration of famine in the region by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. “U.S. taxpayers fund Israel $3.8 billion annually for military aid. That means every U.S. tax payer is contributing to Israel’s military actions,” Greene wrote in a Saturday post on X. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay for genocide in a foreign country against a foreign people for a foreign war that I had nothing to do with. And I will not be silent...

At South Carolina GOP rally, Graham defends Israel against genocide claims, praises Trump’s steadfast support since Oct. 7 attack and warns US abandonment of ally would bring moral and spiritual consequences Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered an emphatic defense of Israel on Wednesday night during a South Carolina Republican Party rally, telling the party’s evangelical supporters that the U.S. must continue to stand firmly with its Middle East ally. Speaking late in the evening, Graham described Israel as “in a fight for their lives,” surrounded by enemies who “would kill them all if they could.” He sharply criticized accusations of...

Donald Trump is hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington this week for a summit which could advance a much-anticipated peace agreement between the two. The meeting would send a strong signal to Moscow regarding the two countries' commitment to finding a solution without Russia. The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia are set to meet US President Donald Trump for a peace summit in Washington on Thursday and Friday, which could advance a much-anticipated peace deal between the two countries. After almost four decades of bitter conflict, Baku and Yerevan might finally settle for peace in the region...

The recent Free Iran World Summit in Italy was repeatedly interrupted by chants from the packed crowd including, “Bound by the blood of the fallen, we remain unyielding to the end.” But with escalating tensions in the Middle East, Western sentiment appears to be shifting toward groups like the National Council of Resistance of Iran that call for overthrowing of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The chants at last week's summit – repeated not only by members of the Iranian diaspora on hand at Rome’s Palazzo dei Congressi but also via video link by many hundreds more at Ashraf-3, the...

"This trade generated as much as $70 billion for Iran, propping up the regime and its nuclear weapons program." China is reportedly using a “dark fleet” to conduct secret ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil in an effort to evade U.S. sanctions on Tehran’s tankers. CBS News sent a crew to scout an area roughly 80 nautical miles from Singapore and found four ship-to-ship transfers occurring; all the “dark fleet” tankers had their transponders switched off, and “clearly do not want to be identified,” the outlet reported. “Both ships have a net or something, a tarp, deployed over the stern, covering...

Why not just say "no deals" with Hamas at all? That seems to be Hamas' position now that France, Canada, and the UK have decided to recognize a Palestinian state while Hamas continues to hold hostages. In fact, Hamas has stopped talking at all, save with one entity:There is growing pessimism in Israel over the possibility that Hamas will show flexibility and return to the negotiating table, an Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.The feeling within the government is that the talks are nearing collapse, an Israeli official said. “It now seems that an expanded military operation in...

A social media account affiliated with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency published a pointed critique Friday of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing him of being unfit to govern due to alleged substance abuse and detachment from public needs. “How can a leader lead when they sleep half the day and spend the other half high on substances?” read the post in Farsi from the @MossadSpokesman account on X, formerly Twitter. It ended with a charged refrain: “Water, electricity, life!” The post, which was automatically translated from its original Farsi, did not name Khamenei directly but was widely interpreted as...

There has been a spate of mysterious fires and explosions across Iran in recent weeks. Naturally the Iranians suspect, with reason, that agents of Israel are responsible. But Iran doesn’t dare to accuse Israel publicly, because that would then require that Iran respond with an attack on the Jewish state, and then Israel would answer back with a far more devastating attack. In fact, Israel may well be engaging in sabotage in order to prevent Iran from renewing its aggressive campaign against Israel, thus giving Israel all the excuse it needs to renew its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic,...

The US has sanctioned eight India-based companies and five Indian nationals as part of its latest Iran-related sanctions action targeting entities engaged in trade of Iranian oil, petroleum products, and petrochemicals, and those identified as part of a shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani — the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran. In the latest action, announced Wednesday, the US Department of the State imposed sanctions on 20 entities and identified 10 vessels as blocked property. Simultaneously, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated more...

Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: Notice how they posted this from their account with 40k followed instead of from @nytimes which has over 50 million.