Free Republic

Have you wondered what happened to Project Freedom? That was the operation President Donald Trump announced about helping ships get out of the Persian Gulf and transit through the Strait of Hormuz, in the face of potential threats from Iran. Then it was stopped, and we didn't hear much about it. Turns out it appears to have been going on, in some measure, right under the nose of the Iranian regime, without letting it be known. American forces in recent weeks have helped coordinate the passage of dozens of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials,...

President Donald Trump made an important post late Monday afternoon about the highly enriched uranium that has been the focus of the deal he's been trying to achieve with Iran. Trump said that the stockpile would either have to be handed over to the U.S. or be destroyed under supervision as part of the agreement. “The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy...

Political commentator Scott Jennings gave the Iran debate a much-needed dose of plain English after he received a briefing from a senior Trump administration official. Jennings' central point was simple: President Donald Trump used force when force became necessary, then paused further strikes when diplomacy had a chance to save lives. Trump's critics have spent years calling him reckless, impulsive, and incapable of restraint. Now he's showing patience, and many of those same voices still can't bring themselves to admit what sits in front of them. Trump has said talks with Iran remain active, but he has also warned his...

Although full details of Trump’s Iran deal, which is still being negotiated, have not been provided by the administration, the president has come under fire for supposedly caving to the mullahs and failing to mete out harsh enough consequences for the terroristic regime.Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earned the president’s wrath for saying the deal resembles former President Barack Obama’s ridiculous 2015 agreement — where we literally dumped pallets of cash on a runway despite not making meaningful progress against their nuclear ambitions — while other hard-line Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, North...

Washington’s war hawks are molting down over President Trump’s outreach to Iran. Senator Ted Cruz says that he is “concerned.” Senator Roger Wicker fears a “disaster.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deemed a preliminary agreement with Iran “not remotely America First.” Trump and his advisors are having none of it. Responding to Pompeo, White House communications director Steve Cheung observed that “he should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals.” Trump, who angered Senate Republicans earlier this week by proposing a $1.8 billion slush fund for January 6 victims and by endorsing Ken Paxton...

The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran are on the cusp of reaching an interim peace deal to end the conflict that began with Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28. President Donald Trump had initially indicated that he was “50/50” as to whether or not strikes against the Persian state would continue. On Saturday afternoon, Trump issued a statement on social media stating that a deal had largely been finalized. 🚨🚨🚨Scoop: President Trump tells me he's "solid 50/50" on Iran deal or bombing. Trump said he will meet senior advisers today to discuss latest draft agreement and may...

This is a war, which means that it isn't over until it's over. The stakes are high, the incentives to deceive are astronomical, and most information leaks are strategic. But there is plenty of reason to suspect that this might be the real deal. After all, Trump has been making all sorts of threats that turned out to be empty since the beginning of the "cease-fire," and has shown no real inclination to restart the war. 🚨 BREAKING: President Trump CONFIRMS a peace deal between the US and Iran has been “largely negotiated,” and could be finalized imminentlyAn announcement could...

At 0.016 seconds after the atomic detonation, the fireball was already hundreds of meters wide. The tiny squares to the left and right in this image are billboards 200 meters from the center of the explosion. Los Alamos National Laboratory.Editor’s note: If you’d like to pinpoint the instant when the world entered the nuclear age, 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time on 16 July 1945, is an excellent choice. That was the moment when human beings first unleashed the power of the nucleus in an immense, blinding ball of fire above a gloomy stretch of desert in the Jornada del Muerto...

Donald Trump was for the Iran war before he was against it. His latest post on social media about the conflict indicated that he is once more calling off a sweeping military action, this time at the behest of his Gulf allies who are apparently quaking at the thought of a renewed conflict. Trump’s initial sentence was quite a mouthful: I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold...

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned Wednesday that Iran is “frighteningly close” to developing weapons-grade enriched uranium.Speaking to lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Wright stressed that Iran’s enriched uranium, which President Trump is deadset on confiscating, puts the regime just weeks away from the threshold needed to get a nuke.“They are a small number of weeks away to enrich that to weapons-grade uranium. There’s still a weaponization process that happens after that, but they’re quite close,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

If the US or Israel attack Iran again, Tehran could produce weapons-grade uranium, says the spokesman for Iran’s parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. “One of Iran’s options in the event of another attack could be 90 percent enrichment,” writes Ebrahim Rezaei in a Persian-language post on X. “We will review it in the parliament.” Iran has enriched uranium to 60%, and could quickly make the leap to 90%.

A Russian cargo vessel suspected of carrying components for two nuclear submarine reactors, possibly destined for North Korea, sank in the Mediterranean Sea under mysterious circumstances in December 2024, according to a CNN investigation published today. The Ursa Major (also known as Sparta 3), a heavy-lift ship linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” and previously used in military operations in Syria, went down approximately 60 miles (about 100 km) off the coast of Spain near Cartagena on December 23, 2024. The sinking followed a series of explosions that killed two crew members and left 14 others rescued by Spanish authorities. Spanish...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war with Iran is “not over,” warning that Tehran still has highly enriched uranium, active enrichment sites, proxy forces and ballistic missile capabilities despite U.S. and Israeli efforts to degrade them. In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes airing Sunday, Netanyahu told chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett that Iran’s nuclear material must be removed and its enrichment facilities dismantled. “I think it accomplished a great deal, but it’s not over,” Netanyahu said, referring to the war. “There’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still...

The Iranian regime has finally sent back its response to the U.S. on the question of a peace deal. But with Iran, you have to know going in that they are giving you something that looks like movement, while having a whole lot of "gaps" in the meantime, as the Wall Street Journal phrased it. I'll put in the proviso that until the U.S. officially confirms details on anything that was in the proposal, this is a report on what it supposedly says. According to the WSJ, the response doesn't "resolve the U.S. demand for commitments in advance on Iran's...

Iran’s response to the latest US peace proposal refuses to address its nuclear program — focusing instead on ending the fighting across the region, Iranian state media said Sunday.The regime’s counter-offer, which was fired off to Pakistani mediators, seeks to ensure the security of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz before starting talks on more contentious issues — including Iran’s nuclear program, according to the IRNA news agency.Washington’s latest proposal had addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back the regime’s nuclear program.

Nuclear weapons experts are raising the alarm bells over the pressing need for the Trump administration to codify in any new deal a ban on Iran’s attempts to use plutonium from its facilities to build an atomic bomb. The administration and non-proliferation experts have largely focused on the Islamic Republic’s atomic weapons facilities that use uranium as the material for building nuclear bombs. Tehran could take advantage of this blind spot and covertly build a plutonium-based nuclear weapon. Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital: "I do believe any proposed deal with Iran...

Nuclear weapons experts are raising the alarm bells over the pressing need for the Trump administration to codify in any new deal a ban on Iran’s attempts to use plutonium from its facilities to build an atomic bomb. The administration and non-proliferation experts have largely focused on the Islamic Republic’s atomic weapons facilities that use uranium as the material for building nuclear bombs. Tehran could take advantage of this blind spot and covertly build a plutonium-based nuclear weapon. Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital: "I do believe any proposed deal with Iran...

Could this be the endgame? On Wednesday, while talking to reporters in the Oval Office, President Trump implied that a deal with Iran was imminent - and stated that they have agreed to give up their nuclear weapons program..@POTUS: "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't — and, they've agreed to that, among other things." pic.twitter.com/Z8ynfQpS7Y— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 6, 2026The Center Square's Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief, Sarah Roderick-Fitch, has more.During a Wednesday afternoon news conference in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that Iran has agreed not to have a nuclear weapon – a stipulation in...

Pope Leo XIV pointed out May 5 that the Catholic Church has long opposed nuclear arms after President Donald Trump falsely claimed the Pontiff had made a “statement” saying “Iran can have a nuclear weapon.”Trump reiterated the accusation against the Pope for the third time during a May 4 radio interview, when host Hugh Hewitt raised the case of Jimmy Lai, a Catholic pro-democracy advocate serving a 20-year prison sentence. Hewitt said Pope Leo should say more on Lai’s behalf. The Chinese Communist Party’s targeting of Lai and other Catholic leaders has put mounting pressure on the Vatican to disentangle...

USS-Scorpion: Two Nuclear Torpedoes Still Sit 3,000 Meters Down — And Nobody Can Retrieve Them In May 1968, USS Scorpion vanished without warning in the Atlantic Ocean — taking 99 men and two nuclear torpedoes to the bottom. Found months later at 3,000 meters depth, the wreck has never been touched. Decades later, the cause of her sinking remains officially unsolved, and those warheads still sit on the ocean floor today. 40 Minute Video at link..................