Free Republic

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...

Iran’s top advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that ties between Russia and Iran are expanding. Advisor Ali Akbar Velayati's comments come in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran. “Velayati made the remarks while meeting in Tehran with Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s special envoy for Syria on Wednesday,” a report from Iran’s state media IRNA said. The report noted that the two men discussed issues such as regional development, the war in Gaza, the conflict in Lebanon, and issues in Syria. This illustrates how Iran is trying to leverage ties with Moscow to encourage...

Russia could supply fighter jets to Iran, significantly improving the Iranian air force and its aging stable of aircraft. The reports that Moscow could be considering this unprecedented move came last week as Iran tensions with the US, Israel and the region are peaking. In addition it came a year after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has received drones from Iran - might Russia be paying Iran “in kind” for the drones, by sending some old fighter jets? US warnings came true US warnings about Russia’s moves and Iran-Russia ties in the past have been borne out. Thus, reports that Moscow...

Russia’s Foreign Minister is in Iraq after an important trip to South Africa last month, which may be part of Russia’s attempt to carve out a new world order where Russia believes it can confront the US. The US occupied Iraq after 2003 and many Americans died in Iraq fighting an insurgency. The US does continue to partner with Iraq against ISIS. Russia’s decision to send its top diplomat to Iraq is symbolic and important in the Middle East, but in the 1980s and 1990s, Russia was a key partner of Iraq and the old regime of Saddam Hussein. “Russian...

Scrambling for a strategy, Russia has resorted to targeting infrastructure in the winter with the sole purpose of making Ukrainians cold. Russia is increasingly relying on missiles and drones to attack Ukraine, apparently abandoning any real war aims This is a new kind of tactic and it relies on lobbing missiles and drones at civilians and civilian infrastructure with no pretense that the targets are military in nature. One of the features of this campaign can be seen in the use of Iranian drones, resulting in it resembling how Saddam Hussein’s Iraq waged war more than previous wars in Europe....

In 2009 the Obama administration decided to abandon a missile defense system initiative that would have protected Eastern Europe. The decision to shift the focus away from defending Eastern Europe was apparently made to get Russia on board regarding discussions of Iran’s nuclear program. """""""""""""" ...in that decision by the Obama administration to shift the focus from defending Eastern Europe to working with Russia on discussions about Iran’s nuclear program, in that decision can be found the origins of today’s tragedy in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Iran was surprised to see the recent Negev Summit where Israel hosted the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt. It is now examining how strong this new alliance might be. Iran was surprised to see the recent Negev Summit where Israel hosted the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt. While Tehran has been shouting about the Abraham Accords since the beginning, accusing Arab states of betraying the Palestinian cause and threatening them against working with Israel, it appears that the Islamic Republic now understands that this new era of peaceful diplomacy is actually happening...