Free Republic

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is moving “quickly” on President Trump’s directive to restart nuclear weapons testing to ensure the U.S. has the “most capable” nuclear arsenal in the world. Hegseth said Friday, during his meeting with Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn, that the Department of Defense (DOD) will work with the Department of Energy (DOE) on nuclear testing and added that Trump has been “clear” the U.S. needs to have a “credible nuclear deterrent.” “That is the baseline of our deterrence, and so having understanding and resuming testing is a pretty responsible, very...

The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tell, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently. Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear. The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an...

Britain hopes to send a top navy officer to Tehran to deliver a face-saving compromise that will ensure the release of 15 captive British naval personnel, Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday. The British government will send the officer to Tehran to promise that the Royal Navy will never knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission, according to a plan cited by The Sunday Telegraph. The compromise, which would involve dispatching a navy captain or a commodore to Iran, was raised at a meeting of a senior government crisis committee on Saturday, the newspaper reported. Mullah-run television aired new footage of two...