Free Republic

Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a U.S. blockade ​of Iran's ports, a major hurdle for Iran to rejoin peace efforts. However, the official stressed that no decision had been made. With a two-week ceasefire set to expire, a senior ‌Iranian official said Tehran was "positively reviewing" its participation but no final decision had been made. The comments conveyed a clear change of tone from earlier statements ruling out attendance and pledging to retaliate for U.S. aggression. The Iranian official...

VOLODYMYR Zelensky has insisted he will happily step down from office in exchange for Ukraine joining Nato.... Zelensky spoke to reporters at London Stansted airport after a day meeting European leaders and holding talks with Sir Keir Starmer over finding a long-term peace deal. He said that his country's freedom is "not for sale" and vowed not to quit despite pressure from the US after his White House bust-up. [He] did once again offer to step down as Ukraine's president if it meant his country would be invited into the Nato alliance.... "To change me it will not be easy....

Ted Cruz lashed out at Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that women who get abortions illegally should be punished. "Of course we shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity and the incredible gift they have to bring life into the world,” he added. Trump was asked what a nationwide ban on abortion would look like in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews. “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said. “For the woman?” Matthews asked. “Yeah, there has to be some form,” Trump responded. Trump's comments sparked a firestorm....

PJ Advice Columnist Belladonna Rogers on coping with the inevitable relative who turns up every year, preferring a debate to a drumstick.Dear Belladonna Rogers,Unlike last week’s advice-seeker, I have but one sibling. He’s 58, two years my junior. He hosts Thanksgiving dinner every year because our mother lives in a nursing home near him. He’s liberal and belligerently so. If I want to see our mother at Thanksgiving — and I do — I have to drive 430 miles from Pasadena to Napa. During Thanksgiving dinner in 2009, my brother asked what I thought of Obama’s stimulus package. I knew...

On the eve of the 2004 presidential elections, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell secretly attempted to shift U.S. policy on Iran by telling key allies he wanted to offer "carrots" to the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear ambitions, former U.N. ambassador John R. Bolton writes in his soon-to-be-published memoir. Bolton, then undersecretary of state, says that he worked hard to thwart Powell's plans -- only to discover, to his dismay, that Powell's replacement, Condoleezza Rice, would pursue the same approach in President Bush's second term. Bolton's book, "Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations...

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes we are going to send a message to our troops. And for our last speaker, we have a gentleman who knows a lot about freedom. He knows a lot about a lack of freedom. He knows a lot about American resolve and sometimes the lack of American resolve. He has been awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with valor, two Purple Hearts, four air medals and three outstanding unit awards. He is one of our real heroes, Sam Johnson of Texas. Mr. SAM...