Free Republic

European Union foreign ministers showed “no appetite” to expand an EU naval mission in the Middle East to the Strait of Hormuz for the time being, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says. US President Donald Trump has called on other nations to help police the strait after Iran responded to US-Israeli attacks by using drones, missiles and mines to ‌effectively close the channel for tankers that normally transport a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas. The EU’s Aspides mission — named after the Greek word for “shields” — was established in 2024 to protect ships from attacks...

“World War III” is not a phrase to be casually tossed around, yet declaring its impending eruption has become a staple of political punditry. The current war in the Middle East is no different. The British media has debated how their country could get sucked into World War III if it allowed U.S. aircraft to use British air bases on their way to bomb Iran. In 2022 and 2023, figures including John Mearsheimer, Tucker Carlson, and Elon Musk warned that helping Ukraine fight Russia would set off a global conflagration. A recent poll conducted by Politico found that a majority...

American intelligence agencies have determined that Iran or potentially another group could retrieve Iran’s primary store of highly enriched uranium even though it was entombed under the country’s nuclear site at Isfahan by U.S. strikes last year, according to multiple officials familiar with the classified reports. Officials familiar with the intelligence said that Iran can now get to the uranium through a very narrow access point. It is unclear how quickly Iran could move the uranium, which is in gas form and stored in canisters. U.S. officials have said that American spy agencies have constant surveillance of the Isfahan site...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot held a call on Monday with his ​Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss ‌the Iran war and both agreed to work on de-escalation, Barrot's office said in a statement. Both ministers ​committed to seeking a political solution ​that would guarantee collective security and take ⁠into account the aspirations of the ​Iranian people, the statement said. Barrot "reiterated the Iranian ​regime's responsibility for the ongoing escalation, after it unjustifiably attacked several countries in the region," the statement ​said. He also criticised the Iranian regime for ​refusing to respect the resolutions from the United Nations' ‌Security ⁠Council...

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t...

On Tuesday night, President Trump made his case for attacking Iran. #Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves if an attack on Iran is prudent or desirable.#In his address, Trump argued that Iran was in the process of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to hit the United States. This assertion is farcical and risible. Iran simply has no ability to hit the United States, and even if it did, the doctrine of classical deterrence would come into play. The United States and the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear-armed ICBMs targeted at each other for decades yet never engaged in direct conflict....

The Vatican will not join President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace, its top diplomatic official said Tuesday, signaling reluctance from the Holy See to take part in the post-war initiative. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See "will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States," the Vatican’s official news outlet reported. The Board of Peace, which was chartered in January and includes nearly 20 countries, is tasked with managing recovery efforts in the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas war. While responding...

Xi Jinping has offered Europe new trade partnerships and promised to uphold the “values” of the United Nations. The move is an apparent attempt to capitalise on the continent’s growing rift with the United States. On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer became the latest leader to travel to Beijing after Mark Carney and Petteri Orpo, the prime ministers of Canada and Finland. In a meeting with Mr Orpo on Tuesday, the Chinese president said China and Europe were “partners, not adversaries” and invited Finnish companies to “swim in the vast ocean of the Chinese market”. He also appeared to snub Donald...

It has been four years since the world was brought to its knees by a virus that many evidence-based reports now indicate leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. You would think the federal government and the “experts” in the public health establishment would have learned their lesson. You would be wrong. Colorado State University (CSU) is moving full steam ahead with a massive, taxpayer-funded “Bat Resource Center.” This new facility, which is bankrolled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the very same agency that funded dangerous research in Wuhan, will import and breed exotic bats to experiment on...

According to the former head of European diplomacy, the EU should recognize the shift in American policy and respond accordinglyBRUSSELS, November 25. /TASS/. Europe can no longer consider the United States an ally after American President Donald Trump put forward his plan for the Ukrainian settlement without any input from the EU, former head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said. As evidenced by the 28-point plan for a Ukrainian settlement, the United States under Trump can no longer be considered an ally of Europe, which is not even consulted on issues affecting its own security, he wrote on X. According...

Iran said on Saturday (Oct 18) that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its "commitment to diplomacy". The 2015 deal - signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - saw the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme. But the pact had already been in tatters after Washington unilaterally withdrew during President Donald Trump's first term, with Iran later pulling back from its commitment. The...

The United States has informed the guarantor nations of the Gaza peace agreement of credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza. This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts. The guarantors demand Hamas uphold its obligations under the ceasefire terms. Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire. The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment...

Iran has no intention to build nuclear weapons, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, just days before international sanctions could be reimposed on his country over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb. We do not seek nuclear weapons,” Pezeshkian said. On August 28, Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose U.N. sanctions that ends on September 27, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing...

If U.S. President Donald Trump really wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he needs to stop the war in Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. Speaking to France's BFM TV from New York, Macron said that only Trump has the power to put pressure on Israel to end the war. "There is one person who can do something about it, and that is the U.S. president. And the reason he can do more than us, is because we do not supply weapons that allow the war in Gaza to be waged. We do not supply equipment that...

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce the UK's recognition of a Palestinian state in a statement on Sunday afternoon. The move comes after the prime minister said in July the UK would shift its position in September unless Israel met conditions including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and committing to a long-term sustainable peace deal that delivers a two-state solution. It represents a major change in British foreign policy after successive governments said recognition should come as part of a peace process and at a time of maximum impact. The move has drawn fierce criticism from the Israeli...

Britain, Canada and Australia confirmed on Sunday that they now formally recognize Palestinian statehood, piling pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and putting three major U.S. allies at odds with the Trump administration. The seemingly coordinated announcements came on the eve of the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, at which France and Portugal are also expected to vote for recognition of Palestinian statehood. ...

Sadly, there are not too many world leaders in the running for the title of most stalwart friend of Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump has to be near the top of that short list for the many pro-Israel actions he's taken while in the Oval Office. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and moved the U.S. Embassy there after failed promises from previous presidents to do so. In 2020, he brokered the Abraham Accords, which accomplished what so much of the world thought was impossible: the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab states. And,...

Amid increasingly belligerent Russian rhetoric against NATO, tiny Estonia has assumed the role of David standing up to Goliath. In recent months, Tallinn has intensified its signaling that in the case of an imminent Russian invasion, it would not hesitate to strike first. The world is now seeing the country’s logic. In a September 2024 interview with the Estonian public broadcaster ERR, Estonian General Vahur Karus stated that if Moscow showed signs of preparing for an attack, Estonia would strike the Russians first: “Our capability to neutralize the enemy on its own territory is crucial.” In the subsequent months, Estonia...

A US Navy sailor in California has been convicted of espionage for selling the force's secrets to a Chinese agent who recruited him through social media. Jinchao Wei, 25, was convicted of six charges, including espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, and unlawful export of classified data about US Navy ships. "The defendant's actions represent an egregious betrayal of the trust placed in him as a member of the US military," US Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement after the verdict was read. "By trading military secrets to the People's Republic of China for cash, he jeopardised not only the...

Palestinian statehood comes at the end of negotiations for a two-state solution and that process can no longer be held in abeyance, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday. “A negotiated two-state solution remains the only path that can offer people on both sides a life in peace, security, and dignity,” he said in a statement issued shortly before his trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, as reported by Ynet News. “For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of that process. But such a process must begin now.” Wadephul’s remarks follow a string...