Free Republic

... Iranian sources earlier disclosed Iran's latest proposal, which would set aside discussion of its nuclear program until the war is ended and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved...

Host Bill Hamblet speaks with Admiral Harry Harris on how a war with Iran could reshape global strategy across two theaters. The discussion explores impacts on U.S. commitments, Indo-Pacific stability, China’s role, and regional security dynamics, highlighting how crises in the Middle East reverberate across East Asia’s strategic and economic landscape.

CRUCIAL OIL WELLS ARE ABOUT TO GET SCREWEDPresident Trump confirms it: As the blockade continues, Iran is now just DAYS AWAY from their oil hitting capacity, causing DAMAGE to their extraction facilities!“They say they only have about 3 days left before that happens.”

Senate Republicans voted largely in unison Wednesday to defeat a Democratic-sponsored war powers resolution that would prohibit President Trump from continuing military operations against Iran. It marked the fifth time that Republican senators voted against a proposal to halt the military conflict. The Senate voted 46-51 to defeat a motion to discharge the resolution out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to vote to advance the measure. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote against it. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who sponsored the measure, argued on the Senate...

President Trump is replacing his Secretary of the Navy as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues as a key chokepoint in the war against Iran. John Phelan is leaving, effective immediately, and Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon said Wednesday in a surprise announcement. No reason was given for his departure. “Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.” Cao, a Navy veteran and failed Virginia Senate candidate, is well-liked by the president. The...

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. Satellite images are giving an insight into destruction in the region, including to the fragile biodiversity of the Persian Gulf. Oil spilt there has the potential to affect the lives and livelihoods of people along the Gulf coastlines, as well as the region’s rich marine life...such as turtles, dolphins and whales that might ingest or become trapped in the oil. They could also potentially affect the filtering systems of desalination plants, on...

The European Union’s energy commissioner is asking people in the bloc to drive less, work from home and implement other measures to lower the demand for oil and gas as the Iran war strains energy supplies. The EU is asking its member states to implement the International Energy Agency’s 10-point plan to reduce global oil demand, said Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s energy commissioner, during a press conference on Tuesday. “Since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, prices in the EU have risen by around 70 per cent for gas and by 60 per cent for oil,” he...

The Speaker of Iran's Parliament has declared the opening of the Strait of Hormuz null and void. In a tweet posted on X, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused President Trump of violating the deal opening the Strait of Hormuz and said the Strait is now closed."With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open."Meanwhile, CENTCOM said today they will continue the blockade until Trump tells them not to. https://t.co/1zFz6q3MVt— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 17, 2026"With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open."Meanwhile, CENTCOM said today they will continue the blockade...

President Donald Trump on April 14 directly addressed Pope Leo XIV in another Truth Social post, drawing attention to the Iranian regime’s reported killing of thousands of protesters in the past two months. “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable,” he wrote.Protests in Iran erupted in late December 2025 over economic hardships and quickly turned into broader anti-government demonstrations, Zeale News previously reported. Iranian security forces reportedly responded with live ammunition against the...

The price of oil plunged sharply and U.S. stock indexes opened at new all-time highs after the Iranian foreign minister said that the Strait of Hormuz was open for commercial vessels. U.S. crude oil plunged 10% to nearly $85 per barrel, while international Brent crude also slid more than 8% to around $90 per barrel. Heating oil futures, which are a proxy for jet fuel, plummeted 13%. Wholesale RBOB gas futures also fell 7%. At the opening bell, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1%. Both set new all-time highs in early trading as a result....

Iran insisted its uranium was “not going anywhere” despite Donald Trump claiming a deal had been struck for the US to remove the nuclear material.The US president told Reuters that he would work with the Iranian leadership to extract the radioactive element from the country at a “nice leisurely pace” before taking it back to America.But Iran’s foreign ministry rejected Mr Trump’s claim, insisting that no such deal existed.“Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere,” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said.Tehran officials also denied Mr Trump’s suggestion that the Islamic Republic had agreed...

Wall Street's major averages advanced on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 (SP500) achieving a record high as investors awaited good news on the U.S.-Iran conflict front while parsing more bank and financial earnings. The benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) made new intraday highs and was last +0.5%. The heavy-tech Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) was last +1.1%, aided by Broadcom (AVGO), +3%, as it entered into a three-year partnership with Meta Platforms (META) to develop its AI chips and deploy them into data centers. Nonetheless, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was -0.3%. Over in the bond market, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield...

Barbara Boyd argues Tom Friedman admitted some prefer Iran not be defeated if it politically benefits Trump or Netanyahu, then frames recent events as exposing “theater” about defending democracy. She claims the EU executed a regime-change operation against Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, citing NGO pressure, frozen funds, threats to strip voting power, and a push to end EU member-state vetoes, amid protests over a fuel crisis tied to the Iran war. Boyd highlights JD Vance’s remarks in Hungary about radicals, sovereignty, and foreign election pressure. She says Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents showing Trump’s first impeachment was a hoax driven by whistleblower...

Eric Daugherty@EricLDaugh·3h🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Sec. Scott Bessent just said that because Iran BOMBED Gulf neighbors, those countries are suddenly opening up Iranian regime BANK accounts to TreasurySo he can FREEZE their assets! Checkmate playing out. 🔥"What may prove to be FATAL mistakes the Iranians made was bombing their [Gulf] NEIGHBORS.""Who are now willing to be much more transparent in terms of the funds, or do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems.""So, we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC...

Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in March prior to drone and missile strikes on the sites. Iran secretly purchased a spy satellite from China in 2024, which it then used to target U.S. bases. According to the Financial Times, Earth Eye Co, a Chinese company, built and launched a TEE-01B satellite in 2024. After it was launched into space from China, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Corp purchased the satellite, leaked Iranian military documents show. Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in...

The issue is no longer whether the regime in Tehran is under strain — it clearly is — but whether Washington is preparing, consciously or not, to replace a brutal clerical dictatorship with a brutal military one. The idea that a military structure could serve as a "moderate" transitional governing authority in Iran seems to rest on the fragile assumption that professionalism leads to moderation. Regional history says otherwise. From Egypt to Pakistan, militaries that stepped in to "restore order" entrenched their own authoritarian rule. Iran offers no reason to believe it would be different.

It's a game to watch Watching the media scurry all over cyberspace to explain away why their TDS-afflicted economic catastrophe forecasts aren’t panning out. Take the surprisingly tame inflation on the month, despite the ongoing Iran War. Despite a 4 percent increase on the year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported April 14 that the Producer Price Index of wholesale prices increased 0.5 percent month-over-month for March, which was much less than the 1.1 percentage increase forecasted by economists as conflict over the energy-critical Strait of Hormuz ensued. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy indicators, also came in...

US Vice President JD Vance expresses optimism about US-Iran talks, revealing President Trump’s “grand bargain" to make Iran economically prosperous in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons.

The Iranian delegation to the US-Iran high-stakes peace talks has adopted the name “Minab-168”. Iranian Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf explicitly identified the aircraft the mission as “Minab-168”. The front row of the aircraft was arranged with blood-soaked bags, the children's shoes, and their photograph with white roses. He posted a picture the caption, “My companions on this flight #Minab168.” The Iranian embassy in South Africa re-shared the picture with the caption, “We will never forget the children of Minab" It also posted an AI-generated video emphasising that association. Iranian officials and state media have used the name...

President Donald Trump was non-committal on what could happen to the price of oil ahead of November’s midterm elections — even floating the prospect that they could go “a little bit higher.” In an interview on Sunday Morning Futures, Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo quizzed Trump on whether his newly-announced naval blockade on ships going in and out of the Strait of Hormuz. “Is this all going to be enough, the blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity in the United States, is this going to enough to lower the price of oil and gas, sir?” Bartiromo said. The...