Free Republic

The Iran war exposed a long-simmering feud within the world’s most powerful oil cartel, boiling over this spring when it contended with the biggest oil supply shock in history. Now OPEC faces a fight for its existence. The Strait of Hormuz has started to reopen, and some OPEC nations are clamoring to ramp up oil production The ultimate decider will be Saudi Arabia Unlike Iraq and Kuwait, the Saudis don’t need production to ramp up . The country was able to keep its oil business afloat by bypassing the strait with pipelines that shipped oil to a port in Yanbu...

SummaryKhamenei will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, near Imam Reza's tomb Ceremonies are scheduled in Qom on Tuesday and Iraq's Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday Iraqi, Armenian and Pakistani officials arrived in Tehran for the funeral DUBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign ​dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to ‌an end in...

The captured archives are starting to show that post-Soviet Russia hadn't stopped its old Soviet ways in Iraq. Among the initial revelations: Russia's SVR foreign-intelligence service recently spied on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, eavesdropping on their conversations and passing the information to Saddam Hussein's regime. As recently as last fall, Russia was continuing to train the Iraqi secret police. Rooting through an office of the Mukhabarat secret police, Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle discovered documents showing that the SVR trained five Iraqi officers in "phototechnical and optical means" and "acoustic-surveillance means"...

US-Saudi relations have significantly deteriorated in recent months amid anger in Riyadh over Washington’s decision to launch a war against Iran that has caused massive blowback for the rest of the region, a Middle Eastern intelligence official tells The Times of Israel, confirming a Wall Street Journal report. Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US to use its bases in order to conduct Project Freedom, which was aimed at breaking Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz by escorting stuck ships out of the channel. Saudi bases and airspace were critical to the operation and Riyadh’s refusal to cooperate forced...

Tucker Carlson had an expletive-filled kiss off to Donald Trump as he continues to burn bridges within the White House over the Iran War. The former Fox News anchor has been one of most public critics from the right of Trump's foreign policy, coming to a head with the strikes on Tehran. Carlson, appearing on the Jack Neel Podcast, accused Trump of feigning strength by using empty threats against Iran as the war continued on. 'He tried to posture his way out of it,' Carlson said of the President after the initial killing of Ayatollah Khomeini didn't force Iran's surrender....

Missing Iranian general’s family suspects Israel Family of Ali Reza Asgari, Iran’s former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, visits Turkish embassy in Tehran demanding information on his whereabouts. Asgari’s wife rejects reports he defected to West, smuggled family out of Iran: ‘We are here, those are our enemies lies’ The family of Ali Reza Asgari , the Iranian general and former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, snubbed recent newspaper reports claiming he defected to the West and insisted instead that he was kidnapped by foreign agents. His wife Ziba Asgari, 46, contended...

Qayis and Layith Qazali. Click to view. The kidnapping of five British contractors - four security guards and a financial consultant - has long been suspected of being an Iranian-backed job. A recent report in the Times Online confirmed an Iranian extremist group has demanded the release of Qais Qazali, the leader of the Iranian-backed Qazali network, in exchange for the five Britons. "Senior Iraqi government sources say their captors have promised they will not be harmed but any rescue attempt would endanger them," the Times Online reported. "They claimed the hostages will remain prisoners 'for as long as...

He is an enemy combatant, so treat him as one. An Iran-backed Hezbollah commander who killed American soldiers in cold blood has been in U.S. custody for four years. Most Americans would see this as a good thing. For the Obama administration, it is a vexing dilemma. This highlights, yet again, why the country can’t afford a second Obama administration. Ali Mussa Daqduq has been a Hezbollah operative for almost 30 years. He is the hardcore. When he joined back in 1983, the “Party of God” (hizb Allah) was just getting its start as Iran’s forward militia in Lebanon, announcing...

June 1-2, 1941, pro-Nazi Iraqis killed, raped and maimed hundreds of Jews.. 'FARHUD', should heighten vigilance against totalitarian evil everywhere and debunk today’s con claiming anti-Zionism is anything other than a modern update of antisemitism... seven years before Israel’s establishment and before there were any Arab refugees. .. bloodbath triggered an exodus of Iraqi Jews amid the expulsion of 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands—refugee problem politically correct society ignores. ... ‘mass rape and killing.’ ” Hooligans inflamed by demagogues murdered at least 128 Jews, injured 600 others and raped dozens, possibly hundreds. “Baghdad became a fast-moving hell,” .....

Six years ago, I moved to Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq…To be honest, my decision was not about “what” brought me here — I simply knew. When I was a teenager, I had to take a history course to fulfill some lower-division requirements for my degree…On a whim, I chose a course on the history of writing in Mesopotamia. One day I went to class and suddenly it dawned on me: “This is my life.” There are some personal things - like the way I wake up and have tea and look out the window…there...

Adam Hamawy’s past relationship with terrorist mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman has loomed over his rapid rise in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). Their relationship spanned a 1991 road trip the two took together to Detroit, Hamawy’s service as the sheikh’s translator for a press conference in which Abdel-Rahman denied any role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Hamawy’s testimony on the sheikh’s behalf at his 1995 trial, where the Islamist leader was convicted of plotting to carry out a campaign of terrorist attacks in New York City. But just one year before Hamawy...

Big things are happening at the White House right now. The rumors started earlier today, Trump had either reached a deal with Iran or he has rejected a deal and would increase the bombings. Secretary Rubio dropped a hint on Saturday that the next step in the Iran war/conflict/whatever would be decided imminently. And it appears that Trump has gathered his top officials to Washington immediately, reportedly to discuss a draft of a deal proposed by Iran. JD Vance was rushed to the White House, interrupting his Ohio Memorial Day weekend plans. Secretary Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs...

These figures are based on annualized data from January to November 2025, compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and reported by Visual Capitalist and other sources. The United States is the world’s largest oil producer, followed by Russia and Saudi Arabia, with the top 10 countries supplying over 70% of global crude oil.United States 16.1%Russia 11.7%Saudi Arabia 11.3%Canada 5.9%Iraq 5.2%China 5.1%Iran 5.0%United Arab Emirates 4.5%Brazil 4.4%Kuwait 3.1%

More Iranian militia types are in the news, sad to say. Even worse, they're not doing their thing on their home turf - they're in the export business. Breaking News: An Iran-backed militia commander was arrested and charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the U.S., including one in New York. Prosecutors say he is a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia with ties to Iran. https://t.co/5FyiNgseXk— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 15, 2026Iran-backed Iraqi terrorists Kata’ib Hezbollah are reportedly seeking negotiations with the Iraqi government for the release of kidnapped American journalist Shelly Kittleson.The group is...

Saudi fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Iran-linked Shi’ite militia targets inside Iraq during the Iran war, while retaliatory strikes were also launched from Kuwait into Iraqi territory, Reuters reported citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. Sources cited by Reuters included three Iraqi military and security officials, a Western official and two people briefed on the matter, including one in the United States. According to one Western official and another source familiar with the operations, Saudi air force fighter jets targeted Iran-backed militia positions near the kingdom’s northern border with Iraq. The Western official said some of the Saudi...

0:00: There's a fascinating news item that um that was released in Israel just yesterday and it came out on Khan News 0:088 seconds: in Hebrew. Khan News is one of the major mainstream news outlets in Israel. And I want to read this to you. It I only saw 0:1717 seconds: it in Hebrew, so I translated it into English. And I want to read it to you in full and talk about the implications of this and what I think of this news story 0:2525 seconds: because I think it has huge implications if it's true for not...

A committee comprising three senior Iraqi figures is close to finalizing an "executive plan" to disarm factions within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that enjoy support from Iran, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on 8 May.Development of the plan, which will be presented to US officials in the next few days, comes amid expected changes to the leadership of key security agencies under the incoming government of Ali al-Zaidi.Trump congratulates Iraq PM nominee Ali al-Zaidi, eyes stronger tiesZaidi was nominated by the Shia-majority Coordination Framework (CF) political bloc on April 27 as the consensus candidate to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani....

Iran’s regime lost the war the moment American force and economic pressure exposed its bluff; what remains is the slow collapse of a terror state running out of money, options, and time.Some nearly stochastic notes on Iran. I begin by singing the same song I have been crooning since President Trump announced the ceasefire and naval blockade in mid-April. The war is over. If this were a novel, we’d be in epilogue territory where we tie up some loose threads in the plot and learn about the fates of various characters.First, let’s talk about money, or rather Iran’s lack thereof....

Donald Trump has told Iran to 'get their act together' over America's demands to stop its nuclear programme and to 'get smart soon.' US President shared an AI-generated image of himself wielding a large gun while surrounded by explosions with the caption: 'No more Mr. Nice Guy!' It was accompanied with a warning to the mullah regime. Trump said: 'Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!' The price of Brent Crude - the international benchmark for oil - has risen to $115 per barrel as talks to...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is quitting the Opec and Opec+ groups of major oil producing nations next month after nearly 60 years of membership. The UAE said its decision would help it meet growing global energy demand in the long term after recent investments to boost its production capacity. It is seen as a blow to the cartel, with one analyst describing the exit as "the beginning of the end of Opec". The Gulf state's energy minister said being a country with no obligation under the groups would give it more flexibility. Opec was formed in 1960 by five...