Free Republic

Iran is sending Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s socialist regime weapons and troops, a top U.S. military official told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. “We see a growing Iranian influence in there,” the head of the U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller, told the Journal. “We’re real [sic] concerned about what Iran is up to, not just globally, but here in this hemisphere.” He went on to cite the “alarming and concerning” arrival of military personnel from the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), notorious for its terrorist activities in other countries including Syria and Iraq. Faller...

Russia plans to establish a military base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast to serve as a logistics center for the Russian navy, according to a draft agreement between Moscow and Khartoum signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and released publicly Nov. 11. The agreement states that Sudan will provide a land plot for the Russian base free of charge for a period of 25 years. It will automatically renew for subsequent 10-year periods. To terminate the deal, one of the parties must notify the other party of its intention at least one year before the expiration of the next...

Writing in the Washington Post on Monday, the French and German foreign ministers... pledge for new cooperation. From an American interest perspective, however, this op-ed reads as little more than a petulant "we can only be friends if you put European concerns and interests first." ...On China...comes the veiled warning that Europe does not want to upset Xi Jinping. ...On Iran...Maas and Le Drian "want to reengage the United States on a joint approach.. On Russia...The words "ready to engage" reflect Europe's rising interest in reducing sanctions imposed on Russia... On trade...They want a one-sided tax.

If Donald Trump doesn’t take the Oath of Office on January 20, 2021, one principal but little-noted reason for this may be that he crossed one of the most powerful and least accountable forces in the nation: the military-industrial complex. As Trump said last September, “the top people in the Pentagon…want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy. But we’re getting out of the endless wars, you know how we’re doing.” Now, however, that Joe Biden has been anointed “President-elect”...

ction class="post-body"> Al-Qaeda’s second in command, accused of masterminding the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, was gunned down in the streets of Tehran by Israeli intelligence agents, reports the New York Times. Abu Muhammad al-Masri was killed by two men on motorcycles in Tehran on August 7. It is believed Israel acted at the behest of the United States, which had been tracking al-Masri and other al-Qaeda “prisoners” living in Iran for years.Much was made of Tehran’s “cooperation” in holding al-Qaeda operatives under “house arrest” by Iran’s apologists on the American left. In truth, Iran was giving them safe...

The decision by three Arab states to make peace with Israel can be credited both to efforts by the Trump administration and the recognition by these Sunni states that their security would improve against the ongoing threats they face from Turkey and Iran. Iran and its proxies interfere with Arab states while promoting their Shi’ite revolutionary ideology; likewise, Turkey pushes its Sunni revolutionary ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the region. Turkey and Iran look to overthrow the Sunni Arab states that do not align with them, such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The normalization deals between the...

A former senior aide to Joe Biden said rejoining the Iran nuclear deal was “high on his agenda” and that the US president-elect would move to do so shortly after taking office. “I believe that in the first months [of Biden’s presidency], we’ll either see him rejoin the deal fully, or what I would call ‘JCPOA-minus,’ meaning lifting sanctions in exchange for suspending some of the Iranian nuclear programs [developed] in the past three years,” Amos Hochstein said Sunday in an interview in Hebrew with Channel 12 news.

Congressman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) called for the US to defund Israel due to what she defined as “ethnic cleansing.” On Friday, Omar tweeted a reaction to the news that Israel had demolished illegally built structures in Khirbet Humsah, also known as Humsah Al Bqai’a, located in Samaria in the Jordan Valley. “This a grave crime—in direct violation of international law,” Omar wrote. “If they used any US equipment it also violates US law. An entire community is now homeless and will likely experience lifelong trauma. The United States of America should not be bankrolling ethnic cleansing. Anywhere.”

The message was clearly aimed at Gulf states and others that are partnered with the US. Iran has sought to reach out to its Arab neighbors, with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warning them that US President Donald Trump will be leaving in 70 days, but Iran’s regime will remain “forever.” He urged them to realize that “betting on outsiders to provide security is never a good gamble.” In Arabic and English, he called for dialogue and to work together. The message was clearly aimed at Gulf states and others that are partnered with the US. Iran was offering them...

Bread is the main food for most Iranians and is facing a serious shortage and high prices in many cities of Iran. A baker in Tabriz said to the state news agency (IRNA), we used to bake eight bags of flour a day, but now our quota is only four bags. Ahmad Mahboobi, a client in Tabriz says: I had to go to 2-3 bakeries and spend a lot of time to get some bread. Yesterday I stood for 2 hours in the queue to buy only 10 loaves of bread which are only enough for one meal. In almost...

Israeli Settlements Minister Tzachi Hanegbi warns that a Biden presidency could ignite war in the Middle East, while Egypt fears Biden would aid the resurgence of Islamists in the region. Hanegbi pointed out that Biden has indicated he will resurrect America’s nuclear agreement with Iran which was cancelled by the Trump administration. For Israel, this would represent an existential threat to national security and drastically increase the chances of war with Tehran. “If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,” said Hanegbi. Meanwhile, other Middle Eastern countries such as...

Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden’s position on the Iran Deal could lead to war between Israel and Iran, Settlements Minister Tzachi Hanegbi warned on Wednesday night. “Biden has said openly for a long time that he will go back to the nuclear agreement,” Hanegbi said. “I see that as something that will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran.” Hanegbi said he is not concerned about a likely Biden victory on most fronts, including the area of settlements, but Iran is a glaring exception. The minister told Channel 13 News that he, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most...

Descendants of the Ottoman genocide are volunteering to fight as Armenia and Azerbaijan remain locked in deadly conflict For many members of the Armenian diaspora, the war is about more than just territory: it is an assault on their ethnic identity BEIRUT: Kevork Hadjian was a much loved opera singer, famous for his mesmerizing voice and the allure he lent to patriotic Armenian anthems. Born and raised in southern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the ethnic Armenian lived for a time in Kuwait before moving to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, with his family in 2004. An ardent patriot, Hadjian held a special...

Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister on Wednesday ordered the military to confront the country’s Tigray regional government after he accused it of a deadly attack on a military base, declaring “the last red line has been crossed” after months of alleged provocations. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s move against the well-armed Tigray People’s Liberation Front raised concerns that one of Africa’s most populous and powerful countries could plunge into civil war. That would send a shock wave through one of the world’s most turbulent regions, the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia’s neighbors include Somalia and Sudan, and the prospect of spreading...

French military forces fighting Islamic extremists in West Africa killed more than 50 jihadists and detained four in an operation last week in Mali, French officials said. Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted Monday night that the French force in the region also confiscated weapons and equipment from the fighters in the operation last Friday, which she said “shows once again that terrorist groups cannot act with impunity.” Drones monitoring the region in northern Mali spotted a convoy of suspected fighters on motorcycles, prompting France to launch the operation, first with airstrikes and then with a ground operation by French commandos,...

Russian air strikes in northern Syria have killed more than 50 Turkish-backed militia fighters in the mainly rebel-held province of Idlib, reports say. Many others were wounded in the attack, which marks an escalation of violence in the region. A training base for an Islamist group called Faylaq al-Sham was hit. The assault puts at risk a ceasefire in Idlib, brokered and monitored by Russia and Turkey, which back opposite sides in the war. UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of dead at 78.

Two ‘Beatles’ charged with hostage-taking of American citizens in Syria and other terrorism offenses that resulted in the deaths of James Wright Foley, Steven Joel Sotloff, Peter Edward Kassig, and Kayla Jean Mueller Two militant fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization, are expected to arrive in the United States today in FBI custody on charges related to their participation in a brutal hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of four American citizens, as well as the deaths of British and Japanese nationals, in Syria.Former British citizens Alexanda Amon Kotey, 36,...

Syrian air defenses thwarted an Israeli attack on Aleppo city, Syrian state television said on Friday. The attack reportedly left seven militia men of the Iraqi Hezbollah dead, and the death toll is expected to rise due to the severity of ensuing causalities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The organization added that unidentified jets, which Syria suspects to be Israeli, struck Hezbollah targets five km away from Qallat Al-Rahbah on the outskirts of Al-Mayadeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

Sharing this video of was sent to me: Nigeria, Africa Rally for President Trump "Massive rally for President Donald Trump in Nigeria, organized by a church. This is shocking and historical, because, I have never seen anything like this"

Spain’s Civil Guard arrested a Moroccan man earlier this week for his alleged involvement in terror activities linked to ISIS in Alicante, south Valencia. Sputnik News cited a statement from the Spanish Civil Guard on Friday saying that the Moroccan man was engaged in recruiting youth for ISIS through the internet. “Agents of the Information Service of the Civil Guard, with the support of various units of the body and Europol, carried out last Wednesday, October 20, the arrest in Aleria of a Moroccan citizen for his alleged terrorist activities,” the statement said. Cooperation between Europol and the Spanish Civil...