Free Republic

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggests to a classroom full of youngsters that Donald Trump has been “humiliated” by his war in Iran – and the President cancels deployment of the long-range missile systems around which Germany had planned its defense strategy for the coming decades. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez observes a strict neutrality on Iran, declaring his country’s bases out of bounds – and Trump urges Spain be kicked out of NATO. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hesitates to sacrifice his country’s navy in a war on which he wasn’t consulted – and Trump mocks him in public for...

US-Saudi relations have significantly deteriorated in recent months amid anger in Riyadh over Washington’s decision to launch a war against Iran that has caused massive blowback for the rest of the region, a Middle Eastern intelligence official tells The Times of Israel, confirming a Wall Street Journal report. Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US to use its bases in order to conduct Project Freedom, which was aimed at breaking Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz by escorting stuck ships out of the channel. Saudi bases and airspace were critical to the operation and Riyadh’s refusal to cooperate forced...

President Donald Trump demanded gas stations slash prices 'immediately' on Monday and urged retailers to start targeting gasoline at around $2.50 a gallon, warning there would be 'big problems' if they failed to act. In a fiery Truth Social post, the president insisted fuel prices no longer reflected falling crude oil costs and accused retailers of overcharging motorists despite oil dropping to around $68 a barrel. 'Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!' Trump wrote. 'They're too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south. The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and...

The United States and Iran “will stand down for now” following an exchange of fire near the Strait of Hormuz over the last several days, a Trump administration official said on Sunday. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said. It’s not yet clear what Iran’s position is on the matter. The United States and Iran have agreed to meet in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday for further discussions, according to another US official.

Iran launched a drone assault targeting Bahrain while a ship in the Strait of Hormuz separately came under attack Saturday in Tehran's likely response to overnight airstrikes by the United States. The U.S. had launched airstrikes overnight in response to an Iranian drone attack on a container ship trying to leave the strait Thursday, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war's uneasy ceasefire. Iran has insisted that ships must obey its orders and warned it will start charging fees for transit through the strait. However, ships have been increasingly trying to leave the Gulf in recent days....

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sought to calm tensions with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, using a mix ​of flattery and gentle pushback to argue that instances of allies' reluctance to support the U.S. war with Iran were limited to "isolated cases." Trump, a longtime NATO critic who has called the alliance a "paper tiger," has been angered by allies' refusal to support the U.S. in the Middle East conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz after a U.S.-Israeli attack on ​Iran on February 28 disrupted the major oil shipping route. During the Oval Office meeting,...

On Thursday, elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted a commercial cargo vessel flying the Singapore flag within the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Citing two senior American officials, The Wall Street Journal reported that the assault inflicted significant damage on the ship’s bridge, though no injuries or fatalities were reported. Concurrently, a regulatory Iranian state body known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) issued a strict warning regarding maritime lanes on Thursday. The agency, which holds an official mandate to supervise and govern transit through the chokepoint, announced that any vessels traveling via routes outside its designated framework...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that President Trump will take military control of the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S.-Iran framework agreement falls apart, escalating the administration's rhetoric on the same morning Vice President JD Vance landed in Switzerland for talks with Iranian negotiators."If this deal fails, Trump is going to take the strait over by force," Graham said on CBS's Face the Nation. "The United States will control the strait. We will charge a fee for those who go through."The comments came hours after Trump floated the same idea on Truth Social, saying that if the...

Iranian officials reportedly abandoned peace talks in the wake of President Donald Trump's threat to 'blow the s*** out of them,' just hours after Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland for negotiations with Tehran. The president threatened Iran to restart his bombing campaigns on the country through profanity filled phone calls and posts on social media while Vance began negotiations. Iranian officials back out of the talks after having filed a formal complaint with Pakistani and Qatari mediators and also refused to pose for photographs, according to the Telegraph. Tehran's Chief negotiator Mohammed Ghalibaf warned that the US should...

@EricLDaugh NOW: Mark Levin fumes and demands the Trump administration "stop trashing, smearing, bullying the little state of Israel!" "Stop cozying up to and telling us that the enemy regime in Iran is now more rational, more moderate, and a regime that we can deal with!" "I don't know what's going on. But if people think they can bully a little country and people who've existed 4,000 years...into surrendering their defense...they got another thing coming. I think it's outrageous!" "We used to see SecWar and Joint Chiefs Chairman tell of the fantastic marriage between our militaries in defeating the enemy....

The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced that they have closed the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the ground shows that ships continue to travel through the waterway unimpeded, with U.S. naval assets in the region confirming that the Strait is completely open.Despite the announced closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Navy (IRGC-N), vessel traffic appears to be continuing, with several vessels using both the Iranian and U.S. announced traffic separation schemes. pic.twitter.com/05fjVSSaYE— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 20, 2026🚨 JUST NOW: Iran caught LYING that they "closed" the Strait of Hormuz againCENTCOM: "Commercial ship...

Almost all media commentators seem convinced that Donald Trump’s foreign policy in his second term is a disaster. He is bogged down in Iran, snookered in Ukraine, his tariff agenda has failed and he has alienated his NATO allies. But this consensus has been too hastily formed. Looking at the bigger global picture, Trump’s foreign policy has been a spectacular success. Take the western hemisphere. We have the so-called “Donroe Doctrine,” the updated version of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. In 1822, president James Monroe, having welcomed South America’s overthrow of Spanish and Portuguese imperial rule, stated that Latin American nations...

The US secretly approved a financial and maritime arrangement between Qatar and Iran, under which billions of dollars were paid to Tehran in exchange for free passage for Qatari tankers and ships through the Strait of Hormuz, three diplomatic officials now confirm. This was a deliberate and conscious course of action by the US administration, which allowed its navy to turn a blind eye to the arrangement, in complete contradiction of its declared policy. The move was intended to ease the crisis in global energy markets and curb rising oil prices. The current revelation proves that the White House had...

US President Donald Trump has confirmed Pakistan's report that the US and Iran have reached a deal. "The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete," he writes on Truth Social. "I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade," he says. "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!" Pakistan PM's statement in fullpublished Here is the full statement from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has just announced that a peace deal between US and Iran...

The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump, who is trying to make progress on finalizing an Iran war deal in the coming days, is expected to have a busy schedule of one-on-one meetings with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the summit in the French lakeside town of Evian-les-Bains, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. The Republican president is expected to discuss with U.S. allies plans to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz as confidence grows for a deal, one official said. Britain and France, both G7 members, have expressed...

A U.S. official says the U.S. military shot down two Iranian drones that were trying to strike commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz tonight. “It appears Iran has attempted to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz tonight. U.S. forces shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones. Traffic flow through the Strait continues,” the official said. The attack occurred after Trump spoke about being close to a deal with Iran this afternoon.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military has secretly helped 200 commercial ships and more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. "This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost." Trump disclosed the operation earlier Wednesday during remarks to reporters in the Oval Office. He credited the clandestine exports with keeping oil prices around $90 per barrel instead of surging above $200. But ship traffic through Hormuz...

Iran has hoisted the Iranian national flag over the seized British oil tanker, Stena Impero, as Tehran taunts Britain in new footage broadcast on state TV.State-controlled news outlet Press TV also showed footage of Iranian armed forces patrolling the decks of the oil tanker after it was seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.The clip appears to have been recorded in the southern port of Bandar Abbas.

DUBAI —A British warship tried but failed to prevent Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from seizing a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, intercepted radio communications show, fueling a wave of recriminations in London on Sunday over who was to blame for the incident last week. In recordings obtained by the shipping consultancy Dryad Global and posted on its website Sunday, a member of the Revolutionary Guard is heard ordering the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker to divert course toward Iran. “Alter your course,” the man says. “If you obey you will be safe.” A British naval officer...