Free Republic

MIDDLE EAST — An oil tanker has managed to slip through the Strait of Hormuz completely undetected after donning a giant fake nose and mustache. The tanker, known as the Delta Magnus, nonchalantly floated in disguise past both the Iranian and American blockades, leaving both sides none the wiser.

A spokesman for Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned the United States on Friday for conducting what U.S. Central Command referred to as “self-defense strikes” to protect American assets in the region, claiming that it had responded and caused “significant damage.” Central Command (CENTCOM), the wing of the American armed forces responsible for operations in the Middle East, revealed on Thursday that it had “intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes,” destroying the Iranian assets used in the attack. CENTCOM described a flurry of “missiles, drones, and small boats approaching American naval assets and attacking, but...

Just yesterday, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing, meeting with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two ministers reportedly discussed bilateral ties, the Iran-U.S. conflict, the Strait of Hormuz, and regional issues. But today, as Araghchi is already back in Tehran, the unpredictable happened, with the Iranians reportedly striking a Chinese-owned cargo ship in the Hormuz waterways. The attack was confirmed by US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz. “A Chinese-owned oil products tanker was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported, as President Donald Trump launched a...

Dubai: Defying international law governing global waterways, Iran is trying to force shippers to comply with a new protocol for transiting the Strait of Hormuz — or risk attack. According to a document seen by CNN, Tehran has introduced new rules for vessels seeking passage through the strategic waterway, pressing ahead with efforts to formalise control over Hormuz despite repeated US and regional warnings. The document, titled “Vessel Information Declaration,” was issued by Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA). It requires vessels transiting Hormuz to submit detailed information, including ownership, crew nationalities, cargo details and voyage plans, before...

"Saudi Arabia is reported to have told him its airspace cannot be used for operations." Donald Trump has suffered a major operational setback as he has been reportedly told by Saudi Arabia that the US cannot use their airspace, says former US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield.

MS NOW's Morning Joe descended into juvenile innuendo on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, as host Joe Scarborough repeatedly mocked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over U.S. policy on the Strait of Hormuz by hammering the homophone “strait/straight.” In a segment criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of the Iran conflict, Scarborough launched into a repetitive riff while adopting his signature faux-folksy persona: “You know, Lindsey goes, ‘It’s all about the Strait. Everything’s about the Strait. We’re doing this, it’s all about the Strait. Say it’s all about the Strait.’” This isn’t Scarborough’s first time using this kind of Beavis & Butthead personal...

A French-owned container ship was “struck by an unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, causing damage to the vessel and injuring crew members, the owner has confirmed. Container ship San Antonio was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday night while transiting the Strait of Hormuz eastward — out of the Gulf and towards India — triggering an evacuation operation to get crew injured in the attack to medical care. The ship, which is owned by French Marseille-headquartered maritime transport group Compagnie maritime d’affrètement – Compagnie générale maritime (Maritime Freighting Company – General Maritime Company, CMA CGM)...

WASHINGTON — The US and Iran are nearing agreement on a memorandum of understanding to end their nine-and-a-half-week war and lay out plans for talks about the future of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, a Pakistani source familiar with mediation efforts told The Post Wednesday.“There are documents,” the source said, referring to multiple versions of the potential agreement. “Which one will be approved is under discussion.”Separately, Reuters quoted a Pakistani source as saying of a potential deal: “We will close this very soon. We are getting close.”

Beijing's empire isn't built on factories, AI labs, or rare earths. It's built on a single nation the West spent two decades dismissing — Iran. And the day Tehran's regime falls, the entire architecture China assembled over thirty years folds inward like wet cardboard. In this deep dive, we expose the hidden financial, energy, and geographic dependencies binding Beijing to Tehran — from the secret yuan-settled oil deals and the petroyuan experiment, to the Belt and Road's only viable land corridor, to the $9–12 billion annual "shadow fleet" subsidy quietly underwriting Chinese export manufacturing. We examine why China cannot quietly...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday she would not support any decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from Italy. "It is a decision that doesn't depend on me and one that I personally would not agree with," Meloni told reporters in Yerevan, Armenia, on the sidelines of a European Political Community summit. Asked whether Washington would consider pulling its troops out of ​Italy and Spain, Trump last week answered "probably". Meloni added she would likely meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is due to travel to Rome later this week for talks,...

The German chancellor Friedrich Merz has desperately backflipped on his criticism of US President Donald Trump after he threatened to remove thousands of US troops from Germany. German chancellor desperately backtracks on Trump criticism after savage threat to remove troops | 4:55 | 6.18M subscribers | 368,472 views | May 4, 2026

[...] “You may still be seeing the inflationary impact of food industry costs for the next 12 to 15 months,” he said. [...] If this sounds hyperbolic, consider the importance of fertiliser. Some 40-50 per cent of the world’s food production depends on artificial nitrogen-based fertiliser, which is created by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas to make ammonia. In turn, this is combined with either nitric acid or carbon dioxide to produce ammonium nitrate, or urea. The problem is that 34 per cent of global urea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, having been produced...

A cargo ship was struck by multiple small craft while sailing near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, UK military officials said. The ship, which was not immediately identified, was hit right off the coast of Sirik, Iran, just east of the strait, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre. All crew members were reported safe, with no group immediately claiming responsibility for the attack. Iran’s military, however, has repeatedly warned any ship that tries to navigate the strait would be attacked unless they pay a toll and prove they are not affiliated with the US...

Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said. Carney was speaking as the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, which opened on Monday amid high tensions in the strait of Hormuz and renewed doubts about the US commitment to Nato. “We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world, and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” he said. In...

US Oil & Gas Association@US_OGA·7hWe see where the Regime has trolled the SecDef. Admirable. But let's show them how it's done...."If you have to export 1.5 million barrels oil in 5-gallon buckets instead of tankers, because a US Naval blockade has choked off your export capacity, that's 12.6 million Home Depot buckets per day.To assist you in your efforts, here is the link to Home Depot where you can find those buckets for $3.98. There are 17,644 currently available.P.S. For the mullahs: 1 barrel = 42 gallons."ransomnote: The post above is in response to the following post.

The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval… While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea... Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting....

Iran’s severely injured supreme leader remained defiant Thursday as he vowed to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities — warning that America’s only place in the Gulf was “at the bottom of its waters.” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen since becoming the supreme leader following his father’s death, issued another statement via state media rejecting President Trump’s peace terms and the American naval blockade on Iran’s ports. “Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and...

President Trump has reportedly told his aides to prepare for a prolonged US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical waterway for global energy flows. On Wednesday, the president told Axios he is maintaining the blockade until Iran agrees to a deal over its nuclear program. The pressure campaign carries mounting costs beyond Iran. While the near-total cessation of flows through the key waterway is cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Tehran, it’s also choking key corners of the global market. By extending the blockade, Trump is wagering that Iran’s export-dependent economy will...

SNIP Summary: Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran following a Monday Situation Room meeting, rejecting both a resumption of bombing and acceptance of Iran's current proposal The blockade is aimed at forcing Tehran to dismantle its entire nuclear programme, with Trump demanding at minimum a 20-year suspension of enrichment Iran's three-step proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while deferring nuclear talks was rejected as evidence of bad faith The Strait of Hormuz is seeing its lowest transit levels since the conflict began, driving up energy costs and weighing on Trump's poll numbers ahead...

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has promised that the US will not remain in the Strait of Hormuz. In a written message, Khamenei wrote, "Today, two months after the beginning of the campaign of aggression by global bullies in the region and America’s disgraceful failure, a new chapter is beginning in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz." "Iran, through its management of Hormuz, will ensure the security of the Gulf region and eliminate the possibility of exploitation by enemies. The new laws and management of the Strait will bring stability and prosperity to all the peoples of the...