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...

All the narratives are wearing off. Vietnam was a pointless war and we lost. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Afghanistan was a waste. And we gained nothing from any of those wars. Saudi Arabia has nuclear weapons and the 19 terrorists from 9/11 were all Saudis. Did we go to war with them? Nope. North Korea has nukes. Little rocket man hasn’t blown us all up yet but we were told he was going to. Pakistan and China have nukes as well. And big bad Russia has nuclear weapons. We were told Putin was going to...

Pro-Palestinian students at the University of Washington occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building Monday evening, renaming it the Shaban al-Dalou Building, in protest against the university's ties to Boeing. A separate group dressed in all black stacked furniture to create a blockade in front of the building before toppling dumpsters to block off nearby Jefferson Road, then confronted a security officer until he drove away.

Iran is on fire — literally, again — and nobody knows why. A massive power plant and a "cardboard factory" caught fire bigly in Iran over the weekend. But there is impressive new video of Iran's port explosion from last week. Iran International reported that a "series of incidents unfolded in Alborz Province, west of Tehran, on Saturday evening, including two fires, reports of an explosion, and a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, according to official statements and eyewitness accounts." Israeli action? Typical authoritarian regime attention to maintenance issues? God just doesn't like the mullahs' regime? Who knows. For reasons yet unknown,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has decided that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is not immune from being sued, reversing the U.S. government’s position that the organization was protected from civil liability.The Justice Department revealed its new stance in a letter it filed in federal court in New York on Thursday as part of a lawsuit that aims to hold the agency, known as UNRWA, accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly attack on Israel by Hamas. The change in position underscores the hardened perspective toward the agency under the Trump administration following allegations by Israel that some...

Sen. Ron Johnson is actively investigating 9/11. A day after the Wisconsin Republican went on a far-right podcast promoting conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a spokesperson for Johnson said the lawmaker is currently seeking information and documentation in order to hold hearings on the event nearly 25 years later. He would do so in his capacity as chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one of Congress’s most storied and powerful panels with far-reaching jurisdiction that gives its chair wide latitude to probe a diverse array of matters. It has...

Iraqi politician: Talks ‘very advanced’; IRGC-linked factions may lay down arms to prevent targeting by US airstrikes, say Iran told them to take whatever decision they deem necessary.BAGHDAD — Several powerful Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the US Trump administration, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials told Reuters.The move to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued privately by US officials to the Iraqi government since US President Donald Trump took power in January, according to the sources who include six local commanders of...

Iran is beating a retreat from Yemen, where it has backed the Houthi rebels, who in turn have launched missiles and drones against Israel, and have also attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, as well as western naval vessels. The reason: U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a relentless assault on the Houthis while also restoring a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions that makes it impossible for Iran to sustain its overseas terror proxies. The UK Telegraph reported on Thursday: Iran has ordered military personnel to leave Yemen, abandoning its Houthi allies as the US escalates an air strike...

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...

– “The brave nations and the proud youth” of the region are labeled as “proxy” forces by western officials, “whereas the Israeli regime is the only proxy force in the region, which works on behalf of colonialist forces to violate the territories and sovereignties of countries.” – “The Zionist regime, as a proxy of the colonizers, incites fire, commits genocide, and perpetrates crimes, and if it gets the chance, it violates [the territories of] other countries, just as it is violating Syria’s today.” – “If others defend their rights or their land, they are labeled ‘terrorists;’ yet, [it is] the...

A U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed the second-highest-ranking leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) Thursday, officials revealed hours before President Donald Trump announced additional targets. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces — together with Iraqi Intelligence and Security Forces — “conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Global ISIS #2 leader, Chief of Global Operations and the Delegated Committee Emir – Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, alias ‘Abu Khadijah’, and one other ISIS operative.” “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” President Trump posted on Truth Social. “He...

The remains of 32 Yazidis murdered by the Islamic State were discovered in a mass grave in Iraq. They are finally having a funeral after 10 years.. It's crazy how little the world cares about persecuted non-muslim minorities in the Middle East. .... So heartbreaking most people don't know that the Yazidi are Christians. IDF rescued a beautiful Yazidi girl from the Evil Tyranny of Gazan's & got her safely back to her family ... Well I’m at least mournfully glad they were able to give them dignified proper final rest. And for the families to have something to bury....

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy on Saturday revealed a new underground missile facility along the country’s southern coast, AFP reported, citing footage aired by state television. The unveiling comes just two weeks after the force showcased an underground naval base. "Hundreds of cruise missiles capable of countering enemy destroyers' electronic warfare are stationed in these underground cities," the Iranian report stated. The facility, whose exact location was not disclosed, houses missile systems stored "hundreds of meters underground" and capable of being deployed swiftly. "These systems and missiles can be armed and fired from hundreds of kilometers away and can hit targets...

Trump met Erdogan at a Nato meeting early in June. Their discussions were very friendly, and after they ended, Trump thought they had made a deal: Trump would ask Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release a Turkish citizen, Ebru Ozkan, arrested because of alleged terrorist links to Hamas, and then Turkey would release pastor Andrew Brunson, who was arrested in Turkey on October 2016 on charges of espionage, which the US considers are bogus charges. So on July 14, Trump called Netanyahu and requested that Ozkan be released, and she was released the next day. But Brunson was not...

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Good evening. Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons. I want to explain why I have decided,...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israel must withdraw its forces from Syria or it will cause “unfavorable outcomes for everyone.” “The aggressive actions of the forces attacking Syrian territory, Israel, in particular, must come to an end as soon as possible,” he said during a meeting of his party in Ankara. “Everyone should take their hands off Syria and we, along with our Syrian brothers, will crush the heads of Islamic State, the YPG and other terrorist organizations in a short time.”

Oy veh — it’s gonna get mashugana out there. In the waning days of the Biden administration (which also coincides with the waning days of Joe Biden), a few uncomfortable truths have emerged. First, Biden is destined to be remembered as one of the least consequential presidents in American history. His tenure was a speed bump -- a thin slice of bologna that’s sandwiched between the two Trump terms. For a guy like Biden, who so clearly covets adulation, recognition, and public praise, that’s gotta sting. Two, it’s now apparent that Biden’s presidency coincided with a national realignment. The public...

Multiple reports from northern Syria on Thursday indicated the U.S. military is reinforcing its presence in Syrian Kurdistan, or Rojava, potentially building a new base in the city of Kobani.The regional outlet Kurdistan 24 reported on Thursday that “a convoy of 50 trucks carrying Bremer walls entered Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled areas in northeastern Syria (Rojava) on Thursday.” Citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a non-governmental organization (NGO), Kurdistan 24 reported that the convoy was headed to the Kurdish city of Kobani, on the Turkish border.“Sources from the observatory indicated that the delivery is part of ongoing efforts...

It is welcome news that Sweden’s Aid Minister, Benjamin Dousa, has said that Sweden will no longer fund UNRWA, apparently satisfied with Israel’s evidence that it has been a HAMAS front. The Arabs there need not worry, though, because Sweden is going to increase the amount of its aid, only using other agencies. Lucky for them. However, Israel could help itself by going further and attacking the very idea that the recipients of UNRWA largesse are “Palestinian refugees” entitled to such aid when there are virtually no refugees among them. And in any case, there is nothing Palestinian about them....

Call it the dark side of liberation. America’s most loyal allies in Syria, the Kurds, are now facing the wrath of Turkish proxies that helped topple Bashar al-Assad’s tyranny earlier this month. As of now neither President Joe Biden nor president-elect Donald Trump have offered any guarantees for the survival of the 200,000 Kurds who are now at risk of being cleansed from the northeastern city of Kobani and surrounding areas. “We feel betrayed,” Ilham Ahmed, a Kurd who serves as the de facto foreign minister for the North and East Syrian administration, told The Free Press in an interview...