Free Republic

The East-West line is the Kingdom's bypass of the Strait of Hormuz, carrying crude from the eastern fields to Red Sea export capacity, and headlines confirming it is flowing normally tend to appear only when some disruption or threat to Gulf transit is already in the price. In past episodes of Gulf supply anxiety, the market's sensitivity has split between actual interruption to flows, which is rare, and the perceived risk premium around chokepoints, which is common and has historically faded once continuity of throughput is confirmed. Confirmation of normal operations typically works to unwind whatever premium the disruption story...

Yemeni government forces claimed on Monday to have retaken control of key positions near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint for global trade, as they launch a renewed campaign to roll back recent gains made by the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Military spokesperson Majid Al-Nuzaili claimed on X that government forces “have succeeded in controlling Bab al-Mandeb,” adding that they have “cut off” and taken control of the road between Dhubab district, which overlooks Bab al-Mandeb, and the port town of Mocha, previously seized by the Houthis. CNN hasn’t independently verified the claim. Forces, which are backed by Saudi Arabia,...

Newsdump Alert: Saudi Oil Facility Hit By Houthis Smoke and flames seen rising from an Aramco facility.... Newsdump Alert: US Security Council Officials Meet At Camp David The National Security Council led by Vice-President JD Vance met at the Camp David retreat in Maryland on Friday... Newsdump Update: Arrested Suspect Released In Murky US Airbase Incident... The vote is four weeks from Tuesday my opinion humble as it is does not want to swerve into raging criticism but simply reflect heartfelt feelings... The Third Anniversary Of October 7th The Pain Inflicted On Israel... The music this week Freddy Weller was...

UAE is in serious trouble. Israel is now suspecting the direct involvement of certain UAE officials in the attempted hijacking of FlyDubai Flight FZ1073. Without several deliberate security violations, the hijacking would have been impossible. To make matters even more suspicious, UAE and Saudi officials still refuse to release the name of the suicidal Omani pilot. The pilot went through 2 body scanners, a metal detector and an X-ray scanner with a knife. No alarm went off during the screening. Another suspicion is that an influential airport official may have already placed the weapon inside the cockpit. Things get even...

MECCA: A suicide bomber reportedly attempted to detonate explosive-laden vest inside Grand Mosque here Friday night. The device malfunctioned and no blast occured. According to reports the alleged bomber got close to Kaaba. However, Saudi authorities on Friday, while denying suicide bombing reports, clarified that a man was arrested for harassing passerby, causing fear and panic. No details apropos the nabbed person has yet been provided. Reuters reports on Thursday: The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said on Thursday the terrorist group had attacked a power distribution station in the holy city of Medina this week, putting one transformer out...

A series of open miracles on the flydubai flight that very nearly went down with a plane full of passengers. Miracle 1: A plane full of people survived an attempt by the copilot to crash their aircraft. Passengers and crew broke into the cockpit and subdued the attacker after he stabbed the captain. Miracle 2: Two off-duty flydubai pilots happened to be on board. They took control of the plunging aircraft and landed it safely. Miracle 3: The plane plummeted and spun out of control - spiraling some 17,000 feet. It ultimately touched down with a chunk of its rudder...

Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv abruptly diverted to Saudi Arabia earlier today after a reported fight between the pilots triggered a distress alert, sources told CNN. Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 shows Flydubai Flight FZ1073 diverted over Jordanian airspace toward Saudi Arabia and rapidly descended 17,400 feet in just minutes around 0120 ET. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled. According to Amit Segal of Israel’s Channel 12 News: Following situation assessments and passenger testimonies, Israel is treating the incident as a full-fledged terrorist attack. It appears that the co-pilot repeatedly stabbed the captain. Once the attack began, several crew...

From my balcony in the Judean mountains, I can see the lights of Jordan on a clear night and the skyline of Amman at sunrise. On other nights, I simply look south and east and know that the same Iranian missiles and drones from the Houthis in Yemen threatening my children and grandchildren are also threatening the mosques, holy cities, the oil fields, and the very capital that keep the House of Saud in power. That is the uncomfortable intimacy of this region. We are not friends. We are not yet even fully acknowledged as legitimate neighbors. Yet Riyadh is...

Washington -- US President Joe Biden has said that he is convinced that one of the reasons why Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel was because of the recent announcement during the G-20 Summit in New Delhi on the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that integrates the entire region with a network of railroad. Israel has launched a massive counter-offensive against Hamas after unprecedented attacks by the militant group on October 7 killed more than 1,400 people. Biden told reporters at a joint news conference with the visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that his analysis is based on...

Join Me In Supporting Free Republic Some of this blog's post are reposted on "Free Republic" established 30 years ago when Bill Clinton was President of the United States. FR a great gathering place for grassroots conservatives and for Rush Limbaugh a place for show prep... Newsdump Alert: Houthi Attacks On Saudi Arabia Ally Of The Yemeni Government Continue... Newsdump Alert: China Opposes 'Unilateral Military Actions' In UN General Assembly Speech Chinese VP Also Endorses Two-State Solution For Palestinians... Newsdump Alert: Deadly Taliban Bombing Pakistan... Rush And I Both 'Male Lesbians"... And what does the Bible say about those who...

The harsh reality for France and French consumers is that three wars have squeezed France's energy supplies and surged its energy prices. First the Ukraine War cutting off oil and natural gas from Russia due to sanctions. Then the Iran War shutting down Persian Gulf oil and natural gas shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. And finally the Yemen War with Houthi forces in Yemen able to disrupt a major oil pipeline for almost two weeks vital to supplying France and Europe... This week a Frenchman accused of espionage was freed from prison in Azerbaijan. The release of Martin Ryan...

A California man was charged Monday with operating a ring of illegal test-takers who helped dozens of Middle Eastern nationals obtain U.S. student visas by passing proficiency and college-placement exams for them. Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, of Laguna Niguel made an appearance in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud as immigration agents arrested 16 of his suspected clients who remained in Southern California... The allegations revealed a potentially dangerous security breach in the country's student visa system and underscored the vulnerability of a tracking process that relies on schools to verify...

France will send troops and defense systems to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, which is key for energy transport, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in a TV interview. He also denied a report by Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the US Central Intelligence Agency had warned European governments of possible Russian drone attacks from the Mediterranean.

The new season of Fauda, released on September 8 on Netflix, is a hit around the world, as the series tends to be – but the big news is that, even as anti-Israel sentiment mounts around the world, it is the number one show in Lebanon, according to tracking sites such as FlixPatrol. Not only is it the top show in Lebanon, which has been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, but it is or has been in the top 10 in nine other Arab countries that have different relationships with Israel. At the time of writing,...

Saudi Arabia ‌has restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu later on Tuesday, three sources briefed on the matter said, as signs mounted of an increase in Middle Eastern oil flows. The resumption of supplies on Tuesday helped ​to drive selling on global oil markets. Global oil benchmark Brent crude fell by more than $2 a ​barrel towards $97, its lowest since September 8.

US President Donald Trump came close to ordering a new American military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen this weekend, after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally urged him to intervene, but called off the planned strikes as they were nearing execution, The New York Times reported. According to the report, Trump had spent roughly two weeks weighing repeated Saudi appeals for US military assistance against the Iran-backed Houthis, whose renewed offensive has expanded the conflict in Yemen and increased pressure on Saudi Arabia. Reuters separately reported Monday that Washington had considered strikes after renewed Saudi appeals but that...

Investing.com -- Saudi Aramco has informed at least two oil refining customers in Europe that they will receive no crude oil next month following an attack on the kingdom's main pipeline to the Red Sea, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter...

Threats to the Red Sea have shut the kingdom’s workaround DUBAI—Saudi Arabia spent months rerouting oil across the desert to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz. Now, with its Red Sea bypass route disrupted by attacks, the world’s oil kingpin is having to return to the waterway it was trying to avoid in the first place.Saudi Aramco, the country’s state-controlled oil giant, is loading more oil onto tankers in the Persian Gulf and then taking its chances sending them through the Strait of Hormuz. The company has told several of its customers in Asia—its most important oil market—to pick up shipments...

This is the first time since Yemen's civil war resumed that strikes have threatened Riyadh.The United States warned on Saturday (Sep 19) that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could "escalate rapidly" after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed. US President Donald Trump cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House on Saturday. The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and...

The Houthi militia in Yemen said on Saturday that it had attacked Saudi Arabia’s capital and oil facilities with a barrage of missiles and drones, a significant escalation in the renewed war between the kingdom and the Iranian-backed group. The Saudis intercepted a Houthi missile launched toward Riyadh, the capital, according to Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen. He added in a statement that air defenses had fended off assaults on “civilians and civilian infrastructure” in several other cities in the kingdom, including coastal Yanbu, where the Houthis said they attacked oil facilities....