Free Republic

America’s Lebanese fantasy hits a road-bump Lebanon Follow Tony Badran Published: 13 December ,2022: 12:39 PM GST Updated: 13 December ,2022: 01:25 PM GST For the past two years, the Biden administration has been hell-bent on getting Saudi Arabia to underwrite the US project of administering Lebanon. And for two years running, the Kingdom has refused, having no desire to bankroll an Iranian equity run by Hezbollah. The administration, however, is demanding US allies suspend disbelief and pretend that Lebanon is in fact a real, normal state. In the latest iteration of its Lebanese project, the Biden team is trying...

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday walked back remarks questioning Pakistan’s ability to keep its nuclear weapons safe by leftist President Joe Biden, who went as far as to call the South Asian nation, a nominal ally of America’s, “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.” Biden made the offending comments at a Democrat Party event at a private home in California last week. Offering disorganized remarks commenting on nuclear weapons generally, Biden mentioned Pakistan amid boasting yet again that he has a close personal relationship with dictator Xi Jinping of China. “I’ve spent more time with Xi...

As the situation turned chaotic in Islamabad after PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his convoy entered the federal capital and started marching towards the city's D-Chowk, the government decided to seek the help of the army to control the situation and protect the government's offices located in the Red Zone. The government, in a notification, said that the army was summoned to control the situation under article 245 of the Constitution. The decision comes after the protests staged by PTI workers took a violent turn as they clashed with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the federal capital and injured multiple...

ISLAMABAD, April 10 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted on Sunday when he lost a vote of confidence in parliament, after being deserted by coalition partners who blame him for a crumbling economy and failure to deliver on his campaign promises. The result of the vote, which was the culmination of a 13-hour session that included repeated delays, was announced just before 0100 (2000 GMT on Saturday) by the presiding speaker of parliament's lower house, Ayaz Sadiq. Khan, 69 was ousted after 3-1/2 years as leader of the nuclear-armed country of 220 million, where the military has...

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has been ousted as the country's leader following a vote of no-confidence over allegations of economic mismanagement, bringing an end to his tumultuous term in office. The parliamentary vote, held Sunday, saw the former cricket star defeated. The opposition needed a minimum of 172 votes out of the 342 member assembly to oust him.

Protesters closed all major roads leading to the Lebanese capital on Monday ... small groups of demonstrators blocked the southern, northern and eastern entrances to Beirut with burning tires and by parking vehicles on the main roads. In other parts of Lebanon, army soldiers briefly opened some roads only to have protesters close them again shortly afterward.

A bill that the Mexican president is expected to approve soon would curtail private investors in the energy industry and possibly reverse gains in lowering carbon emissions. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has never been short of criticisms about his predecessor’s legacy. But he has reserved a special contempt for the sweeping overhaul that opened Mexico’s tightly held energy industry to the private sector.He has called the changes a form of legalized “pillaging,” the product of corruption and a resounding failure. He has suggested that some foreign energy investors are “looting” the nation and that Mexican lawyers who work for...

Pakistan’s foreign policy has been incoherent and inconsistent since its inception. It has suffered from a chasm between policy and strategy, xenophobic tendencies, domestic politics interfering negatively with the foreign policy process, and vice versa – including the unsettling influence of the military on civilian politics and the outsize impact of religious groups. Policy-makers, rather than focusing on the policy process and the outcomes, serially succumb to socio-religious pressures, intensifying policy volatility, and that volatility, read as vulnerability, opens Pakistan up to manipulation by stronger world powers. The result is that on the issues that Pakistan flags as central to...

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis protested on Sunday against the normalisation deal signed between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, Anadolu reported. Mass rallies were held across Pakistan, including the capital, Islamabad, the port city of Karachi, northeastern city of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan and Hyderabad. The protests were organised by the Milli Yakjehti Council, a political-religious alliance which called on the Pakistani people to join the protests and denounce “the controversial deal between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv”. In the city of Rawalpindi, thousands of citizens marched through the city streets led by Senator Sirajul...

Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Minor girl stoned to death for honor BY ROBERT SPENCER Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And...

Fed on an anti-infidel diet from childhood, Pakistanis no matter where they are born, grow up ready for jehad. Even Muslims with a nominal Pakistani connection are beyond help. Pakistan is a country where the arrow of time is travelling backwards. In the 'Land of the Pure', Prime Minister Imran Khan promises to create a mythical seventh century Riyasat-e-Madina (1) yet Islamic demagogues such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman call him a Jewish agent. Rehman and hundreds of thousands of his frenzied followers are protesting nationwide, seeking Khan's resignation. With the corrupt, cowardly and jehadi generals of the Pakistan Army choreographing...

Pakistan: Muslim kidnaps 14-year-old Christian girl, forces her to convert to Islam and marry him SEP 29, 2019 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER The objective behind these cases, which are growing increasingly common, is to expand the Muslim community at the expense of the non-Muslim community. The Islamic community should always be growing, and the non-Muslim community always shrinking. It’s an inherently Islamic supremacist imperative. “A 14-year-old Faisalabad Christian girl is kidnapped, forced to convert and marry,” by Shafique Khokhar, Asia News, September 25, 2019: Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – Samra Bibi, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, was abducted by a Muslim man,...

Pakistan: Jihad massacre mastermind arrested, Trump administration notes that earlier arrests made no difference JUL 20, 2019 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER “Previous arrests of the terrorist made no difference either to his activities or that of his outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.” Indeed. “War is deceit,” said Muhammad (Bukhari 4.52.268). This sham alliance, and the showering of billions on Pakistan for nothing, should be ended, and should have been ended long ago. “US says it doubts Pakistan’s intentions in arresting terrorist Hafiz Saeed,” News On Air, July 20, 2019: The Trump Administration has expressed doubts over Pakistan’s intentions in arresting terrorist Hafiz...

Islamabad/Doha: Cash-strapped Pakistan on Monday secured a bailout package of $3 billionThe Gulf state is the fourth nation that has come forward to rescue Pakistan from default during past 11 months as the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan tries to overcome a ballooning balance-of-payments crisis.Earlier, China gave $4.6 billion in shape of deposits and commercial loans and Saudi Arabia provided $3 billion cash deposit and $3.2 billion oil facility on deferred payments. The United Arab Emirates also provided $2 billion cash deposit."The Qatari-Pakistani economic partnership will amount to $9 billion. Qatar affirms its aspiration for further development in the...

ISLAMABAD: An international detergent brand has come under fire for an advertisement questioning gender stereotypes in the conservative patriarchal country, with critics denouncing the company for allegedly insulting Islam. The commercial for Ariel soap, owned by US-based Proctor & Gamble, calls for women to break free of conservative norms and pursue careers. In the ad, several women representing different professions - including a journalist and doctor - are seen pushing dirty sheets hanging on a clothesline off the screen. The sheets are printed with common refrains used to reinforce the oppression of women in Pakistan, including the question “What will...

Islamic Terrorists Hit Pakistan Hotel to Target China There’s been a pattern of Islamic terrorists in the region targeting hotels. Here’s the latest attack. Pakistan. Heavily armed gunmen attacked a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, in an assault in which a Pakistani separatist group claimed to be targeting Chinese interests and warned of further violence. “After more than 10 hours of continuous battle and achieving all their targets the BLA fighters have used their last bullets on them and have left this world,” said a Twitter post by what claims to be the official account of the separatist...

Labourer whose blasphemy death sentence was overturned has been transferred to KarachiPakistani authorities have moved Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently acquitted of blasphemy charges, to a new “secure area” and are barring her from leaving the country, a close friend and rights campaigner has claimed. Bibi, who spent eight years on death row, was transferred from a location near the capital to a house in the southern port city of Karachi, her friend Aman Ullah told the Associated Press. She and her husband are locked in a single room in a house where the door opens only “at food...

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Monday Pakistan must take on a substantive role in peace talks with the Taliban if the war in neighboring Afghanistan is to be ended. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon Monday, Mr. Mattis demanded Islamabad provide explicit support for “all those who are trying to maintain peace” in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region. “We are looking for every responsible nation to support peace in the subcontinent and across this war in Afghanistan. … It is time for everyone to get on board,” Mr. Mattis said ahead of bilateral talks with Indian Defense Minister...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox proposed on Wednesday the legalization of opium poppy production as a way to help end bloody turf battles fought by drug cartels in various parts of the country. Fox served as president from 2000-2006 with the center-right National Action Party but has since distanced himself from the party. In the past, he has also advocated for the legalization of marijuana. “The plants themselves are not harmful, we make them harmful, (especially) the criminals who use them for evil purposes,” Fox said at a pro-marijuana event in the capital. He also implored...

Activists from various religious parties thronged the Faisal Chowk (Charing Cross Chowk) on Mall Road on Saturday afternoon on the call of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi on the social media following the government’s crackdown on the participants of the protest sit-in at Faizabad Interchange in Islamabad on the orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Surprisingly, there was no police presence in the most sensitive location in Lahore which houses the Punjab Assembly, headquarters of the Lahore Police, and provincial headquarters of the country’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). ... One of the...