Free Republic

US Navy forces recently seized a "massive amount" of explosive material used to fuel ballistic missiles from a fishing boat sailing from Iran to Yemen, the service said on Tuesday. The US 5th Fleet intercepted the vessel — and its four Yemeni crewmembers — crossing international waters in the Gulf of Oman on November 8, and a search of the ship led to the discovery of over 70 tons of ....

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, officials said Wednesday. The attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defense official told the Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorization to discuss the attack publicly. While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Iran. Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of the US...

Viola Davis and Justin Trudeau are among the people who shared a viral mistruth about Iranian protesters in the past several days. A false claim that Iran plans to execute thousands of people has gone viral in the wake of the first death sentence for a protester tied to the demonstrations against the country’s clerical rulers over women’s rights. An image that has circulated widely on social media falsely says 15,000 protesters have been sentenced to death. That claim is not true, but it has been amplified by major public figures, including the actors Viola Davis and Sophie Turner and...

Islamists would have you believe their religion unites them. It is false, it only Unites the "Ummah," against the [dhimmi] infidels [kuffars], but not among tnemselves. Though ethnic bigotry existed and exist, Islamizatiom of ethnic frictions perpetuates ever more and "elevates" it as a "holy war," Jihad. Which is why the 2.7 Million Christians: Armenian (1.5), Greek & Assyrians (700,000) were slaughtered [though the Young Turks were Lefty pro secularism, Jihadism was still played.Andrew G. Bostom, The Legacy of Jihad, Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, 2010, p.667)]. "On November 14, 1914, in Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman...

CNA Newsroom, Nov 15, 2022 / 08:25 am A church bell that was kept hidden by a Muslim family during the Islamic State’s occupation of Mosul rang out above St. Paul’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral on Sunday for the first time in eight years. Christians from across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain came to the cathedral to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony and Divine Liturgy on Nov. 13. Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel, OP, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul and Akra, led a procession to the grotto of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of Mosul, in the church courtyard before ceremoniously ringing the bell. The...

We’ve reported on the ongoing protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, reportedly from being beaten while in custody following her arrest for “unsuitable attire.” Late in October, the Biden Administration announced it was levying sanctions against 14 Iranian officials in response to the government’s crackdown.

(Subtitle) Isolated and embattled, Russia and Iran are increasingly cooperative. Russia once viewed the G-20 group of leading economies as the world’s key cooperative forum. No longer. The November 15-16 meeting in Bali will not be attended by Vladimir Putin and there is therefore little chance that his isolation will be illustrated through face-to-face condemnations from Western leaders. That’s not to say that Russia has no friends, just that it has fewer than before its all-out war on Ukraine began in February. North Korea, for example, has reportedly drawn closer to the Kremlin through supplies of military equipment to aid...

JERUSALEM (AP) — After nearly four years of political deadlock and five elections, Israel swore in the most right-wing parliament in its history on Tuesday. Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is working to cobble together a far-right and religious governing coalition in the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset. The surging popularity of a right-wing alliance once on the fringes of Israeli society helped propel Netanyahu’s political comeback even as he stands trial on corruption charges. The 25th Knesset was sworn into office with trumpets and choral music just hours after a Palestinian assailant went on a deadly rampage in an Israeli-controlled industrial...

Protests began in Iran on September 16, prompted by the death of a 22-year-old woman who was dragged away and allegedly beaten by the morality police for wearing her hijab improperly. Now, a new horror is being forced on the protesters of Iran who've spent weeks continuing their fight amidst brutal oppression by Islamic forces. More than 14,000 Iranians have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations being held around the country, with the country's parliament voting overwhelmingly last week in favour of the death penalty. Protests are being held across the world in solidarity with Iranian citizens. Image: Taken...

Anish Adhikari awoke at the Qatari labor camp at 4 a.m. to diarrhea from last night’s rotten fish. His tonsils were swollen from the limited water made available by his employer while working 14 hours a day in 125-degree heat. But he remained hopeful that building air conditioners for 80,000 ticket-holders could provide the equivalent of $8,000 over three years to support his family in Nepal. That he could pay back the loan shark who’d secured Adhikari a job beginning in 2019 with the Hamad Bin Khalid Contracting Co. (HBK), the contracting firm owned by the the highest echelons of...

At a campaign rally for Rep. Andy Levin, who is a J-Street “Zionist” opposed by AIPAC, but whom President Biden would like to see re-elected, Our President gave us all a brief display of his terminal confusion. This is what he said:“Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” Biden told supporters in an aside during a campaign speech in California late Thursday, after audience members appeared to call on him to address the ongoing protests. “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon,” he added.Forgive me for asking, but which is it? Are “we gonna free Iran,” or are they, the Iranians, “gonna...

TPS) Sources in the Islamic Waqf, which administers the Temple Mount, told TPS on Monday that marriage contracts will now be processed at the Al Aqsa Mosque rather than in a Sharia Court office in eastern Jerusalem. The aim is to strengthen the Muslim presence on the Temple Mount by bringing Palestinian residents to the mosque. It was also learned that there has been a significant increase in the number of Muslim delegations visiting the Jerusalem holy site after visits dropped during the coronavirus pandemic. Waqf officials estimate that 700 Muslims from Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa visit...

A least four people were killed and 38 others injured when an explosion hit Istanbul's popular pedestrian Istiklal Avenue on Sunday, Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya confirmed on social media...

This is the point in the story when we should probably summon Dr. McCoy to say, ‘he’s dead, Jim.’ The “he” in question would be the Iran nuclear deal, known around the White House as the JCPOA. The secretive, four-party talks that have been going on for well over a year never really came close to producing a functional deal, though most of us never heard any of the details. But now, at least according to one Trump administration official who was privy to the process, the entire thing is shut down with “no path forward.” The culprit is supposedly...

Turkish President Erdogan commented on the terrorist attack in Istanbul: "The blast was caused by a planted explosive. Attempts to take over Turkey and the Turkish nation through terrorism will not achieve their goal today or tomorrow, as they have not...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Iran is still downplaying its supplying of drones to Russia following its “confession” that it was sending them. Zelensky said in an address on Saturday to the Ukrainian people that the Iranian government claims it has given a small number of drones to Russia and that it happened before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February, but he knows those claims are false. He said Ukrainian forces shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones per day, and officials know that Iranian instructors have taught the Russians how to use the drones, even though Tehran...

Russia’s national security chief visiting Iran discussed Ukraine and ways to combat "Western interference" in their internal affairs with his Iranian counterpart. Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin met with Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Russian state news agencies said. Nour News Agency, affiliated with the Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), announced in an English tweet that Patrushev was invited by Shamkhani, adding that he will also hold meetings with other high-ranking Iranians to discuss cooperation between Tehran and Moscow. Alongside Ukraine, the two discussed "information security,...

Iran says it has developed a hypersonic ballistic missile that is capable of penetrating an enemy nation’s anti-missile system. On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told reporters the hypersonic system is a “great generational leap” in the development of missile technology. “I don’t think any technology would be found for 10 years capable of countering it,” Gen. Hajizadeh said, according to Iran’s official FARS news agency. A hypersonic missile can fly more than five times the speed of sound and at lower altitudes than conventional missiles. They are also maneuverable, making them harder...

One of Iran’s most prominent actors on Wednesday posted an image of herself on social media without the headscarf mandatory for women in the Islamic republic. Taraneh Alidoosti’s apparent act of defiance comes as weeks of protests have rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in mid-September after being arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country’s strict dress rules for women. Alidoosti, one of the best-known actors remaining in Iran and who has publicly backed the protest movement, posted the image of herself with her head uncovered...

Conservative cleric and a newspaper editor openly critical of government’s stance on weapons it supplied to Moscow An internal rift over the supply of deadly drones to Russia for use in Ukraine has opened up in Iran, with a prominent conservative cleric and newspaper editor saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the war and the supply should stop. A former Iranian ambassador to Moscow has also hinted the foreign ministry may have been kept in the dark both by the Kremlin and the Iranian military. Iran has denied for more than two months that it sold the drones to...