Free Republic

Qatar pledges to make direct investment in Turkey, currently hit by currency crisis amid a diplomatic stand-off with US.

Map of the planned Turkish Stream (Wikipedia). Russia’s Gazprom has begun constructing the first stage of the Turkish Stream pipeline that will run gas from southern Russia across the Black Sea to Turkey, Reuters reported on Sunday.Switzerland’s Allseas Group S.A has begun laying pipes on the Russian shore of Black Sea. The pipeline will when completed by the end of 2019 allow the state-owned Gazprom company to send gas direct to southern Europe through the Turkish Stream while bypassing Ukraine.The Turkish Stream intergovernmental agreement was signed in October 2016 after having been halted for almost a year following the shootdown...

Russia has said it was planning to invite France, Germany and Turkey to an upcoming summit on the war in Syria as the war-torn country's military launched an operation to retake the final rebel-held province. Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu Monday to discuss what the Russian Foreign Ministry described as "preparations for a four-lateral summit of the Russian, Turkish, German and French leaders on the Syrian settlement that is planned to be held soon," according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. The two men would discuss solving the crisis in Syria "through maintaining...

The Syrian Army has finally managed to recapture the entire Yarmouk Basin region following fierce clashes with the Islamic State... - their defeat in southwest Syria.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dealt a lethal blow to the so-called ‘caliphate’ a week ago, when their troops seized the last border points that were under the Islamic State’s control in eastern Syria. According to the official spokesperson for the SDF, their troops managed to capture the entire desert of eastern Deir Ezzor and secure the Al-Hasakah provincial border that weekend.

The Democrats Don’t Have a Foreign Policy, They Have A Trump Policy Not just treasonous, stupid. May 10, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. Quick, what’s the Dem position on Syria? What about China? Don’t bother. There was once a time when Democrats could discuss Syria, North Korea, the South China Sea, economic tensions in the European Union and the future of Africa. But that was before Trump. Democrats don’t have a foreign policy anymore. They have a Trump...

RIYADH/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Monday refused to back down in its defense of human rights after Saudi Arabia froze new trade and investment and expelled the Canadian ambassador in retaliation for Ottawa’s call to free arrested Saudi civil society activists...........

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed a man by crucifixion in the holy city of Mecca on Wednesday amid waging a public-relations battle with Canada over human rights. The man, Elias Abulkalaam Jamaleddeen, was accused of murder, theft, and attempted rape, according to Bloomberg. Saudi Arabia, ruled by its interpretation of Islamic law, rarely carries out crucifixions, but capital punishment remains common. Crimes in Saudi Arabia such as homosexuality and attending anti-government rallies have previously led to crucifixion sentences. Unlike the biblical crucifixions carried out by the Romans against Christians in antiquity, Saudi crucifixions usually involve displaying a beheaded corpse...

Ongoing rocket sirens in southern Israel since 19:00 pm Wednesday. IDF spokesperson reports over 70 rockets launched during the evening, most of which landed in open territory and 11 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. 15 Israelis have been injured from the rocket launches and many families are spending the night in the home shelters. Hamas in a statement: “We are delivering on our promise. The resistance accepted the responsibility to even the playing field with the enemy and it is succeeding in doing so.”

A public university is paying a radical 89-year-old linguist hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach his famously leftist brand of politics, according to records obtained by Judicial after a months-long battle with the taxpayer-funded institution. Judicial Watch launched an investigation after the University of Arizona (UA), located in Tucson with an enrollment of about 40,000, announced that it hired Noam Chomsky to teach a general education course for undergraduates titled “What is Politics?” In the announcement UA describes Chomsky as a “world-renowned linguist” and one of the “most cited scholars in modern history.” The reality is that Chomsky is...

In announcing the imposition of the sanctions against Iran promised back in May, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday: “The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are among the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they will ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!” On Monday the president explained why he was imposing the sanctions, and asking other nations to cooperate: “We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces...

The most murderous dictatorship in all of human history is assembling a massive battery of U.S. lobbyists and propagandists in and around Washington, D.C., sparking growing concerns across the political spectrum about its intentions and the effect this lobbying Leviathan will have on the federal government. That dictatorship, of course, is the Communist Party regime enslaving mainland China. And among the growing roster of political hacks on its payroll are top former officials including ex-House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who played a key role in transferring America's productive capacity to Communist China in the late 1990s. Unsurprisingly, the Clintons...

A senior Hamas official said in an interview with the Turkish news agency Anadol that an agreement would be reached between Israel and Hamas by the end of the month. The official said that the agreement would be for five years and would include, inter alia, the halting of arson attacks, the return of dead bodies and the establishment of a port and an airport in the Sinai Peninsula. The official's statement comes after London's Asharq Al-Awsat claimed on Monday that Hamas had agreed to a "gradual ceasefire" in exchange for Israel reopening the Kerem Shalom crossing. Last week, Maariv...

European firms that stop doing business with Iran because of reimposed U.S. sanctions could in turn be sanctioned by the E.U., a special adviser to the 28-country bloc's top diplomat has warned. “If E.U. companies abide by U.S. secondary sanctions they will, in turn, be sanctioned by the E.U.," Nathalie Tocci, an aide to E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, told Britain’s BBC Radio 4 on Monday night.

The Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, assassinated a top Syrian rocket scientist on Saturday using a car bomb, the New York Times first reported Tuesday. The scientist, Aziz Asbar, led a confidential unit known as “Sector 4” at the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center developing cutting edge missile technology designed to further Syria’s efforts to initiate the long range bombing of Israeli cities. Asbar was killed along with his driver near the research center, which lies in the town of Masyaf and has long been believed to host chemical weapons development. The center has twice been the target of Israeli...

The Trump administration announced Monday the reimposition of sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of a nuclear agreement with the country. The sanctions will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and follow through on the order President Trump gave when he withdrew from the nuclear pact in May. "The United States is fully committed to enforcing all of our sanctions, and we will work closely with nations conducting business with Iran to ensure complete compliance. Individuals or entities that fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences," Trump said in a statement Monday. "The JCPOA, a...

President Trump is set to reimpose several sanctions against Iran, following his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. On Monday, the Trump administration is expected to announce the first wave of sanctions targeting Iranian automobile exports, trade and resources needed for nuclear development. The president pulled out of the deal back in May and gave a grace-period for U.S. allies to make prep for the fallout like cutting ties with Iranian businesses. The administration threatened to punish any country still making deals with the Islamic republic when the sanctions take effect.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that the leaders of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel were isolated in their hostility to Iran. "Today, the entire world has declared they are not in line with US policies against Iran," Zarif said

The youngest woman convicted of plotting a terror attack on British soil has been jailed for life with a minimum of 13 years. Safaa Boular, 18, became the final member of Britain’s first all-woman terror cell to be imprisoned when Judge Mark Dennis QC sentenced her at the Old Bailey on Friday. She hid her Islamic State-inspired plans in coded conversations about preparations for an innocent Mad Hatter’s tea party after being seduced online by a jihadi fighter while sitting her GCSEs. Sorry, this content isn't available on your device. It appeared she knew what she was doing and acted...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' office claimed that White House Adviser Jared Kushner's reported efforts to limit UNRWA activities are "a continuation of the subversive plots to eliminate the Palestinian problem." A statement from Abbas' office emphasized the need to "oppose" and "foil" the US plan. It is believed that US President Donald Trump's proposed peace plan will remove the question of PA "refugees" from the negotiating table. The peace plan, the contents of which have not yet been revealed, was by the PA as "aiming to eliminate the Palestinian problem and negate all of the Palestinian nation's legitimate...