Free Republic

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker "absolutely" expects to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first visit to Israel next month, the Republican said as he prepared to depart for a western European trade mission. The likely presidential candidate told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the Netanyahu meeting in mid-May is not yet confirmed, but that it's his "hope and expectation" it will happen. A spokeswoman for Walker's political group, Our American Revival, did not immediately confirm Friday whether the meeting has been set up. Walker met with British Prime Minister David Cameron during a trade mission...

With its much trumpeted “framework deal” with Iran coming under increasing criticism, the White House is on the defensive. Almost immediately after it was signed late last week, the deal has come under attack for missing key details such as how and when sanctions on Iran would be lifted, while Washington and Tehran have reportedly been “irritating” each other over their competing interpretations of the deal itself. As if that wasn’t enough, in an interview Tuesday President Barack Obama made an astonishing admission, telling NPR the agreement he lauded as a “good deal” would enable Iran to easily acquire a...

"......Mr. Walker said the Iranians are not coming to the negotiating table “out of the good nature of their hearts trying to push for world peace.” “They’re coming to the table because they were being brought to their knees because of the sanctions from the United States and from our allies particularly in Europe,” he said. “And right at the time when they’re working think about this kind of negotiation. We should have been saying here’s the deal: you take it or if not we’re going to go back to our allies and push for even stronger sanctions because we...

Possible presidential contender Scott Walker came out swinging on national television against President Obama, who had publicly suggested the Wisconsin governor was “foolish” for taking a hardline stance on nuclear negotiations with Iran. The public tiff took off when Walker simply said he would not agree to any nuclear deal with Iran that allowed the country to enrich uranium – and Obama couldn’t let the comment go. The president said Walker had adopted a “foolish approach,” and added: “Perhaps Mr. Walker, after he’s taken some time to bone up on foreign policy, will feel the same way.” Walker, late Wednesday...

The very thin fiction of Obama’s “historic” agreement with Iran is unraveling with amazing speed. It’s notable that the Iranians never felt any urge to play along with Obama, not even for a few hours. They were loudly announcing his spin on the deal was false before the sun set on the day the agreement was announced. And now the Iranians are actively violating the terms of the agreement, which hasn’t even been formally written down or signed yet, according to the Times of Israel: Iran will begin using its latest generation IR-8 centrifuges as soon as its nuclear deal...

Joining the outpouring of criticism against the Iranian nuclear framework deal announced last week on Tuesday were legendary former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz, who warned of the implications of the deal. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, the two veteran diplomats wrote that “debate regarding technical details of the deal has thus far inhibited the soul-searching necessary regarding its deeper implications.” […] Kissinger and Shultz noted that by “mixing shrewd diplomacy with open defiance of U.N. resolutions, Iran has gradually turned the negotiation on its head. Iran’s centrifuges have multiplied from about 100...

Washington (CNN)A U.S. military campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities would only take "several days" of bombing, Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday.

CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" and claiming Tehran had made considerable concessions. In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work, reports AFP. "I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a (nuclear) program,"...

While US President Barack Obama’s administration has been so busily celebrating the framework deal sealed last Thursday with Iran over its nuclear program, official Iranian statements in Farsi appear to disprove Obama’s claims about what has or hasn’t been agreed. The New York Post outlined on Saturday the different statements about the agreement. Those statements include one by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini, as well as an official Iranian text, a text in French, and US Secretary of State John Kerry’s summary which presents the framework as being a done deal. […] But...

WASHINGTON -- Requiring Iran to recognize Israel in a comprehensive agreement over its nuclear program is misguided policy, US President Barack Obama said on Monday. In an interview with National Public Radio, Obama spoke to the suggestion put forth by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. The Israeli premier says that Iran's behavior should fundamentally change before restrictions on its nuclear program are lifted. A framework for a comprehensive nuclear agreement was reached last week in Switzerland between Iran and world powers. "The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing...

The Canadian government has not shared US President Barack Obama’s enthusiasm over the deal reached with Iran over its nuclear program last Thursday, by which the Islamic regime continues enriching uranium at reduced levels in exchange for the removal of sanctions. Canadian Foreign Minister Rob Nicholson responded to the deal, warning that the Islamic regime may still be able to obtain a nuclear weapon even with the agreement. “We have to make every possible diplomatic effort to ensure that Iran will never be able to achieve the ability to develop a nuclear weapon,” said Nicholson, noting such a development could...

President Barack Obama discussed his administration’s most recent foreign policy feat this weekend, saying the isolation of countries such as Iran does not always serve American interests.In an interview with The New York Times, Obama said the deal with Iran that would allow it to develop nuclear energy while lifting sanctions is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”“This is our best bet by far to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon,” Obama said in the interview published Sunday. “What we will be doing even as we enter into this deal is sending a very clear message to the Iranians and to...

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, said Sunday on Fox News that the legislation that would force Preisdent Barack Obama to bring a deal on Iran’s nuclear program before the Senate is close to achieving the support of a veto-proof majority. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, sponsored by US Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would mandate that the president submit to Congress the text of any pact with Iran, and bar the administration from suspending congressional sanctions on Iran for 60 days. …

On a basic level, the framework deal between world powers and Tehran will be judged by whether it prevents an Iranian bomb, but that will take years to figure out. A more immediate issue is the projection of Western power. Supporters of the framework deal can argue that the U.S. and world powers extracted significant concessions from Iran, breaking a decade-long impasse and proving that diplomacy backed by tough sanctions can bring about positive change even in the Middle East. But if, as critics contend, the agreement ends up projecting U.S. weakness instead, that could embolden rogue states and extremists...

As Iran and the P5+1 world powers struggle to eke out a deal on Tehran's nuclear program in Switzerland, Israel says it will do everything possible to prevent a nuclear Iran. Speaking on public radio Thursday, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that all options were on the table in the face of the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. This, he added, includes military action. Iran has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Most recently on Tuesday, senior Iranian military official, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, said "Israel's destruction is non-negotiable" and that the Jewish state should be "wiped of the...

As talks over a nuclear deal with Iran continued past self-imposed deadlines, Israel’s intelligence minister has warned that the military option is on the table–and noted that Israel does not need U.S. cooperation to carry out a pre-emptive strike. According to the Times of Israel, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio Thursday: “…if we have no choice we have no choice… the military option is on the table.” He reminded listeners that Israel had attacked Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 without help from then-President Ronald Reagan (who actually condemned the attack).

Head of the IDF Planning Directorate Maj. Gen. Nimrod Sheffer tells Israel Hayom that “Israel will do whatever is best for Israel” if it feels Iran threatens its existence, even if it means defying the U.S. • “Any true partner would accept that,” he says. When asked whether he could feasibly envision a situation in which Israel’s air force bombs an Iranian nuclear facility contrary to U.S. directives, Maj. Gen. Nimrod Sheffer told Israel Hayom that “since it has happened in the past, I have no reason to believe it won’t happen again.” Sheffer, the head of the Israel Defense...

resident Barack Obama and John Kerry promised that the nuclear deal to be signed with Iran in Switzerland this week will give the world powers a year’s warning after the Islamic Republic’s breakout up to an operational weapon. Intelligence sources disclose that, to clinch the framework deal in Lausanne, even this concession, which imperils Israel, the Gulf and the Middle East at large, was not enough. In a further surrender, the president authorized the US delegation to fall back again on the space granted the world powers for reacting to breakthrough, dropping it from a year to six or seven...

Wednesday, in a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it is time for the international community to stand its ground and demand a better deal with Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday excoriated world powers over their dogged pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, pointing to recent statements by officials in Tehran — notably their calls to eliminate Israel — as evidence of the Islamic Republic’s unwillingness to compromise and seek peace in the region. Yesterday an Iranian general brazenly declared, and I quote, ‘Israel’s destruction is nonnegotiable,'” Netanyahu said, referring to a statement by Mohammad Reza Naqd, the commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “But evidently, giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable,” he said. “This...