Free Republic

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,� notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change� in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.� And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

Hackers are trying to infect organizations throughout the world with a popular strain of malware by sending emails that appear to be from an Egyptian oil company. In research published Tuesday, Romanian antivirus company BitDefender noted a surge in attempted phishing attacks that try to trick users into downloading malware by masquerading as Enppi, an oil company owned by the Egyptian government. The malware, known as Agent Tesla, is a spyware tool which enables hackers to monitor keystrokes, steal data about file downloads and collect username and password credentials from internet browsers, among other capabilities. The number of attacks spiked...

ANGLICAN Archbishops and Bishops across Africa and Pakistan are uniting with Barnabas Fund and calling for donations after ravenous locust swarms, originating in Oman, swept across East Africa, with a devastating impact, as well as spreading east to Iran and now Pakistan. Thousands of Kenyan Christians facing food shortages in the badly hit Pokot region have just sent an urgent call. Uganda is also badly hit. Lord Carey, Archbishops Stanley Ntagali (former Archbishop of Uganda), Stephen Kaziimba (Uganda), Jackson Ole Sapit (Kenya), Masimango Katanda (Congo), Laurent Mbanda, (Rwanda) and Benjamin Kwashi (Jos, Nigeria) have issued an appeal. The UN is...

Salalah (Agenzia Fides) - More than a thousand people took part in civil ceremonies and liturgical celebrations that took place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 December in the Sultanate of Oman, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new Catholic church. The place of worship is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, patron of the missions, and is located in the city of Salalah, governorate of Dhofar. The first stone of the church was laid in February 2018, and the construction of the entire place of worship was completed in just 18 months. The church has a capacity of...

For the first time in roughly half a century, Oman is under new direction. The longest-serving monarch of the Arab world, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, died Friday at the age of 79, ceding the country to his cousin and former culture minister Haitham bin Tariq al-Said. The latter was sworn in as sultan Saturday, assuming the reins of state in a ceremony attended by high-ranking military and government officials. "The trust in us is great and the responsibilities are great," the new sultan told those assembled for the occasion, according to the state-run Oman News Agency. He focused on...

Iran is now saying thata Ukrainian airliner was shot down by accident..... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now saying she will send the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for a trial.... Three Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the war powers resolution symbolically limiting President Trumps power to make war against Iran.... Islamic State issuing a statement in support of the death of Iranian General Qassem Soliemani.... The United States announcing sanctions on Iran in retaliation for the missile attacks on US forces in Iraq Tuesday night..... Eight reported dead in eastern Syria after an...

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said died on Friday evening, state media said early on Saturday. Qaboos, 79, had ruled the Gulf Arab state since he took over in a bloodless coup in 1970. Qaboos had no children and had not publicly appointed a successor. A 1996 statute says the ruling family will choose a successor within three days of the throne becoming vacant. If they fail to agree, a council of military and security officials, supreme court chiefs and heads of the two assemblies will put in power the person whose name has been secretly written by the sultan in...

A day after sanctions were imposed on networks allegedly helping Iran circumvent U.S. sanctions, the Treasury Department announced new sanctions against a Lebanese bank and individuals in Oman for financial links with Hezbollah and Hamas. Powerful US financial sanctions were imposed on the Jammal Trust Bank in Lebanon, which was accused of acting as a key financial institution for Hezbollah. Sanctions also targeted individuals in Oman who allegedly act as middlemen to funnel cash from Iran's elite Qods (Quds) Force to Hamas in Gaza. The U.S. Treasury Department "is targeting Jammal Trust Bank and its subsidiaries for brazenly enabling Hezbollah's...

Substantial sums of hard currency provided to Saddam Hussein from the sale of Iraqi oil allowed under United Nations sanctions have been laundered through banks around the world by a Russian Mafiya boss described in an MI5 report as "one of the world's top criminals." Despite that, Israel continues to allow Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich to travel openly on one of its passports. Even more remarkable, the MI5 description was reinforced by an investigation by Mossad. Its report concluded that Mogilevich is a "major criminal - but has taken great care to commit no crime against Israel." His supply of arms...

Iran's Options and the Destructive Defiance by Amir Taheri May 26, 2019 at 4:00 am To start with, we must realize that the crisis in question isn't caused by any of the traditional causes of conflict between nation-states.... In other words, the conflict isn't a classical international one. The reason is that Iran no longer behaves as a nation-state but as a vehicle for an ideology. The madness that is Khomeinism has always had its method, which includes abject surrender when pressed too hard and brazen aggression when pressure is eased. Contrary to claims by the pro-mullah lobby in Washington,...

Oman announced on Wednesday that it will open an embassy in the Palestinian territories in support of the Palestinian people, AFP reports. The announcement coincided with the US-led economic workshop in Bahrain in which the Trump administration unveiled the economic portion of its Middle East peace plan. "In continuation of Oman's support for the Palestinian people, the Sultanate of Oman has decided to open a diplomatic mission at the level of embassy in the State of Palestine," the foreign ministry said on Twitter. A delegation from the ministry will travel to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, to take...

Jeremy Hunt says Britain would consider joining the US in military action against Iran. Tensions between the US and Iran have increased in recent weeks after the downing of an American drone, and claims by Washington that Tehran was behind attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. The Foreign Secretary's comments came as Foreign Office minister Andrew Murrison held talks with the Tehran government at the weekend where he said he was "clear" about the UK's concerns over Iran's activities. Mr Hunt said Britain would "stand by the United States as our strongest ally" and "weigh up military intervention...

Palestinian leadership said Saturday that White House adviser Jared Kushner's proposed economic plan was a non-starter unless it came coupled with a political solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Reuters reported that leaders of both the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank and Hamas, the Islamist militant party that controls the Gaza strip, dismissed Kushner's proposal for a $50 billion plan that includes a global investment fund meant to improve economic opportunities in the Palestinian territories.

DUBAI—Two tankers were damaged in attacks off the coast of Iran early Thursday, including one operated by a Japanese company, on a day when Tehran rebuffed attempts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to ease a military standoff with the U.S. The incidents sent oil prices sharply higher, reigniting fears of trade disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, through which over a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil is shipped. Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude prices, rose 4% on Thursday to $62.37. The attacks appeared to use relatively sophisticated weapons, according to early assessments, and came within...

Lots of differing accounts from different media sources. Some say the tankers were attacked, a couple say “ torpedoed”. Bottom line, there was an incident nvolving two large oil tankers, one is on fire.

Iran’s Al-Alam television network cited local sources in Oman as saying that two successive explosions were heard in the Sea of Oman on Thursday morning. The sources said the blasts were caused by “attacks” on the tankers, according to the report. Local Pakistani sources also said the giant tankers had sent distress calls to the sea’s littoral states, the report added.

The bizarre phenomenon was pictured above Al Ain near the border with Oman Due to its rarity and strange appearance the holes are often attributed to UFOs Scientists quickly explained it is a 'fallstreak hole' or 'hole punch cloud' Fallstreak holes occur when water droplets quickly freeze and form ice crystals ======================================================================= UAE citizens were left baffled after a mysterious 'whirlpool hole' suddenly appeared in the sky above the city of Al Ain this weekend. The large circular patch of clear sky emerged inside the otherwise heavy cloud near the border with Oman, as if somebody had punched a hole...

ROME - Italy has planned to sign a memorandum of understanding to become part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. "The negotiation is not over yet, but it is possible that it will be concluded in time for (Xi's) visit," the newspaper reported, quoting Michele Geraci, the undersecretary in the Italian economic development ministry. The United States said the project was unlikely to help Italy economically and could significantly damage the country's international image, the paper reported. "We view BRI as a 'made by China, for China' initiative,"the report quoted Garrett Marquis, White House National Security Council spokesman, as saying....

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another diplomatic victory for Israel with the dramatic announcement that Chad and the Jewish State would be reestablishing diplomatic relations. The Muslim majority nation had severed ties in 1972 following intense pressure from Libya, its menacing neighbor to the north, which at the time was led by the dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi. But following a visit by Chad’s President Idriss Déby to Jerusalem and a reciprocating visit by PM Netanyahu to N’Djamena, forty-seven years of animosity instantly vanished. Israel’s historic diplomatic achievement occurred despite intense efforts by the Palestinian Authority and Iran to torpedo the...

MANAMA/Bahrain—The Trump administration, via Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is beginning to build a coalition of Arab allies that will help the United States expel "every last Iranian boot" from Syria and ensure the Islamic Republic's march across the Middle East is stopped in its tracks, according to U.S. officials.Pompeo arrived in Bahrain early Friday to hold the first of a series of meetings with Arab leaders in key gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman. During this leg of Pompeo's weeklong trek across the region, the secretary of state will continue his behind-the-scenes...