Free Republic

CNN host Dana Bash said Friday on “The Situation Room” that during a phone conversation, President Donald Trump said the hardline negotiators he was dealing with in Iran were killed in Israel’s military strike. Bash said, “Well, my first question, it was a very brief conversation, but my first question was about the secretary of state’s remarks last night. His statement, which you mentioned in the open to the show, which explicitly said that the U.S. was notified about the Israeli strikes shortly before they happened, certainly warned Iran not to retaliate against U.S. assets. But the boilerplate language that...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a blistering verbal assault on the United States and President Donald Trump during a nationally televised speech, calling Trump a liar who brings shame on the American people, as the regime’s signature chant “Death to America” rang out repeatedly. The remarks were aired Saturday on Iran’s state-run Channel 1 and featured a crowd erupting multiple times into chants of “Death to America,” “Death to England,” and “Death to Israel,” as Khamenei accused U.S. leaders of using military power to spread war. “Some of the things the U.S. President said in his recent visit...

Iran’s so-called “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly persuaded to talk with the Trump administration about a new nuclear deal after being told by advisers that the regime could collapse if he did not. Khamenei had previously rejected talks with Trump. But with Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions, his military action against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, and Israel’s destruction of Iran’s air defenses last year, Khamenei’s advisers appear to have believed that the regime was on the ropes. The New York Times reported Friday: Mr. Khamenei had publicly and repeatedly banned engaging with Washington, calling it unwise...

Israel’s Army Radio reported Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began preparing plans for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear sites after destroying nearly 90% of Syria’s air defense capabilities, which had formerly protected Iran. Army Radio military correspondent Doron Kadosh reported on air that Israel had destroyed 86% of Syria’s surface-to-air missile capability, among 500 other sites that the IDF had targeted since the fall of the Assad regime Sunday. Kadosh elaborated, in a post on X, that Israel had used 1800 munitions in the attack on Syrian weapons — munitions that had been intended for other purposes, but...

Axios reported Friday that Israel did, in fact, hit Iranian nuclear facilities in its response last month to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, confirming reporting by Breitbart News based on a theory first floated by Israeli columnist Caroline Glick. As Breitbart News reported in October: [Glick] noted that Israel hit Parchin, a secret Iranian military base that has long been a suspected site for Iran’s nuclear program. Media reports suggest that the target at Parchin was “a building that was part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program, and … facilities used to mix solid fuel for missiles.” But the program...

“The notion that the $100 billion which Iran will obtain ‘is going to make all the difference in the world is just – it’s not true,'” Kerry said. No, but it is going to make some difference. It is going to cost people’s lives. As will this entire disastrous agreement with Iran. “Kerry Dismisses Iran’s Financial Support for Hezbollah, Other Terror Groups,” by Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, July 15, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): (CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday played down concerns that Iran will use the windfall from sanctions relief under the nuclear...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - A framework was reached at marathon talks on Iran's nuclear programme in Switzerland that will allow further negotiations towards a final agreement, Germany and Iran said, although it was not clear what details would be made public. Western and Iranian officials at the talks said they would conclude with a joint statement announcing that enough progress had been reached to allow further negotiations until a final deadline of June 30. "Agreement on framework for final agreement reached. Press conference following," Germany's foreign ministry said on Twitter.

In yet another deplorable display of betrayal, the Obama administration belatedly acknowledged that it is withholding information from Israel pertaining to the P5 + 1 talks with Iran. The administration’s shocking announcement followed initial denials by both the State Department and the White House that they were engaged in this type of duplicitous conduct against a strategic ally. Fearing fallout from the revelation, the White House claimed it acted to prevent the Israelis from leaking “cherry-pick[ed]” information and failing to properly contextualize. The revelation demonstrates three unwavering facts. First, the White House has probably already caved in to nearly all...

In what will be the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 revolution, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iran's foreign minister on Thursday, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes has confirmed. Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will join their counterparts from the six major powers that are negotiating to contain Iran's nuclear policy, reported USA Today. "We welcome Iran engaging seriously through that process given that it represents the international community's commitment to holding Iran accountable, but also being open to a diplomatic resolution," Rhodes said. The meeting was initially...

Moscow - Iran's first atomic power plant, a symbol of what the Islamic Republic says is its peaceful nuclear ambition, is now operating at full capacity, Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Friday. The Russian-built 1,000-megawatt reactor near the Gulf city of Bushehr, was plugged into Iran's national grid last September, ending years of delays and suspicions that Moscow was using the project as a diplomatic lever. Oil-rich Iran says electricity generation is the main motivation for nuclear work that its adversaries say is really aimed at getting atomic weapons capability.

An image said to come from inside an Iranian military site shows an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that UN inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted at the site. Iran denies such testing and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber. The image was provided to The Associated Press by an official of a country tracking Iran's nuclear program who said the drawing proves the structure exists, despite Tehran's refusal to acknowledge it. The official said he could not discuss the drawing's origins beyond that it was based on information from...

Senior defense official says Iran's nuclear program not easily derailed like Iraq or Syria: "There is no one silver bullet you can hit and that's over"; claims Iranian regime's biggest fear is US. Israel would not be able to halt Iran's reported quest for atomic weapons with a single strike, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday. The defense official, who in line with Israeli army guidelines declined to be identified, mentioned Iran during a review of the security situation in the Middle East in a briefing to foreign reporters.

VIENNA - In an underground chamber near the Iranian city of Natanz, a network of surveillance cameras offers the outside world a rare glimpse into Iran's largest nuclear facility. The cameras were installed by U.N. inspectors to keep tabs on Iran's nuclear progress, but last year they recorded something unexpected: workers hauling away crate after crate of broken equipment. In a six-month period between late 2009 and last spring, U.N. officials watched in amazement as Iran dismantled more than 10 percent of the Natanz plant's 9,000 centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium. Then, just as remarkably, hundreds of new machines...

Nearly 76,000 Iranian Jews moved to Israel since 1948 and Immigration Ministry officials and the Knesset committee for immigration are trying to find ways to encourage the remaining 25,000 to move to the Jewish State. One major obstacle is the comfortable position of many Iranian Jews, despite their children starting school every day with the chant “Death to Israel, Death to America.” Marking International Human Rights Day, the Knesset Committee on Immigration discussed the situation with Israelis from the Turkish and Iranian Jewish communities in Israel. “I ask Jews in Iran why they stay there, and they tell me they...

The Stuxnet virus, which has attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and which Israel is suspected of creating, has set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program by two years, a top German computer consultant who was one of the first experts to analyze the program’s code told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "It will take two years for Iran to get back on track," Langer said in a telephone interview from his office in Hamburg, Germany. "This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war."

The United States is concerned about Iran's nuclear intentions, not the weapons systems it develops, a senior U.S. official said on Monday, referring to several recent unveilings by the Islamic Republic of self-made advanced military equipment. (Snip) Speaking on Monday to the MSNBC network, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said that, while Iran's developing military capabilities were of concern to the United States, its sights were set on "Iran's intentions."

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S. J.J. Green, wtop.com WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before --...

Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on...

Obama Administration to Push for Tough New Economic Sanctions if Iran Doesn't Come Clean on Nuclear Plans The Obama administration is planning to push for new sanctions against Iran, targeting its energy, financial and telecommunications sectors if it does not comply with international demands to come clean about its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials. The officials said the U.S. would expand its own penalties against Iranian companies and press for greater international sanctions against foreign firms, largely European, that do business in the country unless Iran can prove that its nuclear activities are not aimed at developing an atomic...