Free Republic

Tehran says it can destabilize global energy security — and that it’s a direct consequence of the Zionist regime’s actions.

Kuwaiti authorities arrested 14 Kuwaiti citizens and two Lebanese nationals belonging to a Hezbollah cell, seizing weapons, narcotics, and terror paraphernalia.

While the world’s attention is focused on the combat transpiring in Libya and the events in Egypt and Bahrain, Yemen has also descended into crisis. The country is deeply split over its support for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and this profound divide has also extended to the most powerful institutions in the country — the military and the tribes — with some factions calling for Saleh to relinquish power and others supporting him. The tense standoff in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa has served to divert attention (and security forces) from other parts of the country. On March 28,...

A dam has broken and our media are desperate to avert our eyes from it.  I am stunned at the succession of positive developments that has followed the announcement almost a month ago that the United Arab Emirates is normalizing relations with Israel. Momentum is accelerating toward the long dreamed-of goal of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. I have to pinch myself after writing such a thing to remind myself that decade after decade of strenuous effort has failed, frustrating presidents of both parties and stymieing plan after plan put forth by diplomats and NGOs. Yet, improbable...

Throughout four weeks of war, Iran has continued to make the United States’ Gulf partners pay a price for Operation Epic Fury and Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion. The Iranians have fired thousands of missiles and dronesat their neighbors, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) bearing the brunt of the assault. There is also significant damage to energy infrastructure in Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. From the first days of the conflict, part of the Islamic Republic’s strategy was immediately clear: inflict significant pain on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia so that they would in turn pressure the United States...

Remember how Iran denied that any discussions were going on with the United States after President Donald Trump revealed they were happening? Some in the liberal media and among the Democrats immediately lined up, saying they believed Iran, despite Iran's history of lying and terrorism. Oh, and you know, killing Americans. Former CIA Director John Brennan: "I tend to believe Iran more than Donald Trump." pic.twitter.com/W2fPiKmtOf— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 24, 2026But even while the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied talks, he confirmed them, as we reported. There are no talks with the U.S., which is sending messages through different...

From now on, based on the information we have about you, even parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations anywhere in the world will no longer be safe for you," Iranian Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi warned Americans and Israelis on Iranian state television.

War is never something the United States should engage in without very good cause. Too many of our past wars might have involved some bit of national interest, but they weren't really necessary. Kicking the crap out of Afghanistan following the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden? I got that completely. I was less thrilled with us going into Iraq. My take has always been that we should be slow to anger, but when we hit that point, we should descend upon our enemies like the fiery hand of God. It's what we did in the Gulf War,...

Most Americans probably don’t look back at March 2012 — if they remember it at all — and think of terrifyingly high gas prices. In the month when “The Hunger Games” ruled the box office and President Barack Obama was on his way to a comfortable re-election, the price of Brent crude closed the month around $123 a barrel. That would be about $175 a barrel in today’s dollars. As of Tuesday, despite Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on its neighbors’ energy facilities, it’s hovering around $100, slightly higher than the average inflation-adjusted price...

😳Applause line at protest in Philly: "For every US soldier who comes back in casket, we cheer!" Video at link.

Last week, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran "a bit". But Iran's successful hitting of US military bases and energy infrastructure in the Gulf suggests that Russian help is much more than what Trump described as "a bit". Russia is reported to have provided Iran with the precise locations of US warships and aircraft operating in the Middle East. Russia's Kanopus-V satellite gives Iran round-the-clock images of American assets and other targets in the region. An important target reportedly provided by Moscow to Tehran was the precise location of a US military base in Kuwait,...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke on Tuesday of a “deep rift” with traditional ally the United States and said the US-Israeli war on Iran was a “breach of international law”. In unusually strong comments, the German head of state said that just as there was no going back from Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “there will be no going back to before January 20, 2025”, when US President Donald Trump entered the White House for a second time. “The rift is too deep and the trust in American power politics has been lost, not only among our allies but…...

The two sources said IRGC officers tasked with helping Hezbollah recover arrived shortly after a ceasefire in November 2024, and set to work even as Israel continued to strike. One of them said the deployment involved about 100 officers. Changes implemented at their behest included replacing a hierarchical command structure with a decentralised one, comprising small units with limited knowledge of each other’s operations, helping to preserve operational secrecy. They said IRGC officers also drew up plans for missile attacks against Israel that would be launched simultaneously from Iran and Lebanon — a scenario executed for the first time on...

Iraq has declared force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies after military operations disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and halted most of the country's crude exports, three energy officials told Reuters.Basra oil production was cut by approximately 70%, from 3.3 million barrels per day to around 900,000 barrels per day.

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia but did not hit the US-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing multiple US officials. One of the missiles failed in flight, while a US warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other, although it could not be determined if the interception succeeded, the newspaper says. The Journal does not specify when the missiles were fired.

Three weeks into a military engagement in Iran, a war Republicans will not call a war, the American and Israeli militaries have all but wiped out Iran's capacity to make war. We have killed their leadership, the replacement leaders, and militia members on the ground. We have destroyed their missile launchers and the factories in which they made the missiles. But Iran still has one of the most powerful weapons in the world on its side, and it is ruthlessly deploying it – the American press corps. "Families mourn as dead are laid to rest in Tehran," blared the front...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles. Its supreme leader issued another defiant statement on Friday, nearly three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes that have killed a slew of Tehran’s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries.The United States was meanwhile deploying three more warships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states as many in the region marked one of the holiest days on...

"The British Isles are declared to be in a state of blockade,” announced Napoleon Bonaparte, and elaborated: “All commerce and all correspondence with the British Isles are forbidden.” It was 1806, and what would be known as the Berlin Decree aimed to strangle the British economy. The bold scheme seemed economically logical and militarily practical, but it ended up a grand flop. Britain’s economy, coastline, and navy all proved too big for the plan, which also underestimated the kingdom’s link to America and access to the high seas. In fact, Napoleon’s blockade backfired. Europe, it turned out, needed British exports...

Signs of discontent, low morale, financial strain and desertion are spreading among parts of Iran’s security and military forces, Iran International has learned. Members of the Special Units Command received a notice on Friday saying salary payments for some units had run into problems, according to people familiar with the matter. The delay marked the third time this year that wages for those forces had been paid late. Following the delays, some personnel refused to attend pro-government gatherings, the sources said, causing disruptions in deployment in some major cities. Retirees and some army personnel have also not been paid for...

Europe’s own regulatory architecture turned off Europe’s own energy supply. And America. . . on the other side of the Atlantic with a full tank of gas, watched it happen.” —Jeff ChildersLet’s pause for a moment amid all the excitement to address an abiding mystery of these times: why does the news media seem to be rooting for American failure in the Iran operation? Or more generally, how did the media become handmaiden to the Lefty-left and all its ancillaries? How were they lured into their Cloward-Piven bunker of crypto-Marxian “resistance?” It’s unlikely that the network executives, news producers, and...