Free Republic

The Trump administration is barring Iran’s top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military official in Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif requested a visa a “few weeks ago” to enter the United States to attend a Jan. 9 Security Council meeting on the importance of upholding the U.N. Charter, according to a diplomatic source familiar with...

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a heated speech today in Parliament that he “coordinated” everything with the now dead commander of the Quds Force. Javad Zarif said that he had weekly sessions with Qasem Soleimani and coordinated with him. “In regional talks, whatever we did, we coordinated with each other,” he said today. He told lawmakers who were calling him out for “lying” that those who knew Soleimani and other known regional terrorists knew that he worked very closely with Soleimani. “Those who know Soleimani the Martyr and Seyed Hassan Nasrollah, and the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestine Resistance,...

SENATOR Ted Cruz is calling for a criminal investigation into Twitter for potentially "violating US sanctions against Iran." Cruz asked for the investigation in a letter to the Justice and Treasury departments on Friday. In February, Cruz wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to ask him to stop providing social media services to Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Now, the senator is calling on Attorney General William Barr and Secretary Steve Mnuchin to "take action." In Friday's letter, Cruz wrote: "I believe that the primary goal of (the International Emergency Economic...

"We won't be staying in our cars and you don't have to wear a mask. There may be a lot of people giving hugs and lots of hand shaking going on. Doing our part to strengthen the herd immunity against Covid-19" Libertarian activist Ammon Bundy announcing a worship service..... Meanwhile the federal Bureau of Land Management is investigating after a complaint from hikers about Ryan Bundy building irrigation infrastructure on land traditionally used by rancher Cliven Bundy but claimed as federal land now designated as the Gold Butte National Monument..... Also in the linked story the US Ninth Circuit Court...

A complete and total collapse of oil prices today to below zero levels...... Syrian media report an Israeli air strike on the central city of Palmyra tonight.... After an additional buildup of Turkish military forces in northwestern Syria over the weekend the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdgoan accusing the Syrian government of violating the cease-fire in the Greater Idlib region. He said the Syrian government would face 'heavy losses' if the violations continued. The "Al Masdar" news website reporting Syrian government shelling of jihadist positions in Idlib.... The Iranian Foreign Minister visited Damascus today.... An attack on a US military...

In early January the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike. Following the death of Commander Soleimani Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lashed out at President Trump for assassinating the Iranian al-Quds terrorist leader who was responsible for the deaths and maiming of HUNDREDS of US soldiers. It soon became apparent why Murphy was sooo upset with Soleimani’s death. Senator...

This year’s Munich Security Conference may go down in history as the COVID-19 viral super-spreader “event of the century," if not in all of recorded history. That’s because the Munich 2020 event took place from February Friday 14-Sunday 16, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif attended. Unknown to apparently all the high security-minded attendees, FM Zarif was likely carrying much more than the dark secret that the COVID-19 virus had already begun rampaging through the highest echelons of the Iranian government and society. FM Zarif , or one of his minions, was likely carrying the actual COVID-19, and infected who...

MUNICH - Speaking during the Munich Security Conference Saturday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called out European leaders and others for claiming the West is “westless,” pushed back on allegations that the United States “rejects the international community” and explained that the NATO alliance has been bolstered, not weakened, by President Trump’s demands on allied countries to properly budget for defense.  "I saw the topic for this weekend’s gathering, this idea of 'westlessness' as the core theme for this year’s conference. And I am sure, too, there are many of you who would call yourself here realists, but let me...

TEHRAN -- Iran’s foreign minister said Wednesday that he believes his recent meeting with a U.S. senator had spooked the Trump administration because it was an opportunity to talk directly to “the American nation.” Mohammad Javad Zarif met last week with Sen. Chris Murphy on the sidelines of an international security conference in Germany. The Connecticut Democrat defended the meeting on Tuesday after his actions were questioned in conservative media, and as President Donald Trump suggested they may have violated U.S. law. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped anyone who meets with Zarif would be reflecting the U.S....

Sen. Chris Murphy confirmed The Federalist’s reporting that he privately met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif without State Department knowledge or approval in Munich last week. After Mollie Hemingway first reported the meeting Monday, Murphy did not respond to any media inquiries. Tuesday, he published an account of his trip on Medium, sharing details of his meetings and describing his “mission” to meet with officials of Iran, which he described as “our adversary, responsible for the killing of thousands of Americans.” Murphy also described his “goals” for meeting with Zarif, but admitted that he “cannot conduct diplomacy on behalf...

Iran has launched what it promised would be a 'crushing revenge' strike against the US over the death of General Soleimani - but succeeded only in damaging two airbases in neighboring Iraq. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired 22 ballistic missiles at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and Erbil International airport in the north in the early hours of Wednesday, but failed to kill a single US or Iraqi solider. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on Iranian TV shortly after the missiles were launched, described the strikes as 'a slap' and said they 'are not sufficient (for revenge)' while...

Pat Gray discusses President Trump's latest power move as he blocked Iran's top diplomat from coming to the United States after learning that he planned to trash America in front of the UN.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif over the phone on Friday to discuss the killing of Iran's military chief Qassem Soleimani, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. "Lavrov expressed his condolences over the killing," the statement said. "The ministers stressed that such actions by the United States grossly violate the norms of international law."

Kim Jong-un speaks saying "the world will witness a new strategic weapon' from North Korea 'in the near future' more later on.... Part of the alert brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Kuwait tonight, some 750 US soldiers. More to follow in the coming days..... This after thousands of protesters in Iraq attacking and some entering the US Embassy grounds in Baghdad forcing US forces to disperse them with tear gas today. The protesters angered by the US air strikes in Iraq and Syria Sunday against an Iranian backed militia group.... Chelsea Manning, who gave Wikileaks documents on...

Events related to Iran and Israel appear to be dominant with numerous Israeli attacks reported in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria since Saturday night. There's also been a rocket attack aimed at southern Israel from Gaza..... Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived by airplane at Biarritz, France. site of the G7 summit, just after 8am Eastern US time Sunday morning.... The Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the Israeli drone strike reported in the suburbs of Beirut early Sunday was a: "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty"..... The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri Sunday...

Breaking News: Syrian air defenses engaging targets early Monday morning in Hama province near Masayaf in northwestern Syria.... The Iranian Foreign Minister pointing at outside forces being behind the British seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar earlier this month that led to Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker Friday... "It's clear they're glorifying a violent assault on Tommy Robinson designed only to desensitize the public in case he's murdered in there. They don't want you to care" That's the message from Tommy Robinson's spokesman Avi Yemeni in response to Sunday tabloid reports..... The Battle of Brexit and...

"I disagree with it by the way....I was not happy with it. I disagree with it...I didn't say that, they did" Part of what President Trump had to say about his supporters shouting "Send Her Back"..... Comments of condemnation coming from the President of the European Council.... In stronger terms than that at the Montreal news conference was Canada'a Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.... In Japan 33 have died in an arson attack on anime studio in Kyoto..... And from the Syrian war the claims from various sources related to it.... Also from the war in Syria the horrible story of...

The United States imposing sanctions on four top generals from the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Those generals and their families banned from entering the USA because of the conflict in the predominately Buddhist country with the Rohingya Muslims. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blaming the generals for what are considered harsh policies against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country. The Myanmar government views the conflict a a fight with Islamic terrorism. A "partial preliminary injunction" from a federal judge against ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond in Oregon Tuesday.... The US House voting 240-187 to condemn President Trump for...

Duke Professor Omid Safi: Islam for 1,400 Years Has Had Clear Emphasis on “the Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life” JUL 11, 2019 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD In late June, Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, announced by way of riposte to Donald Trump’s warnings to Iran not to renew its nuclear weapons program, that there was no need for such warnings, for Islam itself forbids such a program. This same statement has been made several times in the past, ever since 2010, by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who has claimed that nuclear weapons are “forbidden under Islamic law.”...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday tweeted a warning to US President Donald Trump. "Misconceptions endanger peace," he warned. "Sanctions aren't alternative to war; they ARE war. 'Obliteration'=genocide=war crime. 'Short war' with Iran is an illusion." Last week, Trump sent Iran an ultimatum, setting a deadline for the start of negotiations and warning that if Iran refuses to talk, the US will attack for the downing of an American surveillance drone.On Monday, Trump announced additional sanctions against Iran, which he said were retaliation for the downed drone, and on Tuesday he warned that "any attack on anything American...