Free Republic

Iran's Parliament speaker has issued an unusually stark warning about the country's deepening economic troubles, declaring that even a powerful military cannot protect the Islamic Republic if its people are hungry and the economy continues to deteriorate. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, one of the country's most senior political figures, made the comments during a meeting with Iranian and Iraqi economists in Baghdad, according to Middle East news outlet Al Bawaba. "No matter how strong our military power becomes, if we are hungry, we will not be able to endure," Qalibaf warned, according to the report. The comments represented a striking acknowledgment...

Support for Hamas has fallen sharply, but the decline has not translated into stronger backing for the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a new survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). Instead, the poll points to broad distrust in Palestinian political leadership, a growing preference for negotiations over armed struggle, and an opening for alternative electoral figures ahead of legislative elections scheduled for November 28. The findings, presented by Khalil Shikaki, director of PSR, point less to a transfer of support from one established faction to another than to a broader crisis of confidence in the...

Transferred money to Specially Designated Global Terrorist.Exhibit 349 shows Elkomy transferring $20,772.88 to IARA boss Khalid Al-Sudani. He’s since been listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Her name appears on transfers and correspondence involving money being moved to Iraq, the terrorist occupied territories in Israel and other terror conflict zones.

President Trump's announcement on Wednesday that he was launching an "Economic D-Day" on Iran has been met with a combination of bluster and panic in Tehran. The IRGC is huffing and puffing as usual, claiming they will cut undersea cables and isolate the Arab Gulf states from the Internet, shutting down the banking system in the region. One wag even suggested that brave Revolutionary Guards soldiers, whose claim to battlefield glory is to slaughter innocent children in the streets of Iranian cities, would invade Kuwait to seize U.S. bases there. I know a few former specops guys who are licking...

The U.S. Navy’s effort to establish a new route through the Strait of Hormuz and to shuttle tankers through it under cover of darkness appears to be a success so far. A lot of preparation went into this, involving both the destruction of Iranian surveillance and naval assets as well as clearing mines the Iranians had already emplaced in the straits. The U.S. naval presence likely prevented the Iranians from mass mine-laying using dedicated ships. Instead, they turned to small boats that could carry a single mine and would simply drop it at random. As a result, Iran has no...

As I wrote at the time, Pres. Trump made a good deal in June, got the oil flowing, and left the Iranians with no leverage and few benefits. So the IRGC reneged on it in a few weeks and started shooting. Now we learn the U.S. Navy has set up a stealth convoy system for Hormuz that is taking 9-15 million barrels a day out of the Gulf, according to Energy Sec. Chris Wright. When you combine that with the 7-8 million barrels from the Hormuz bypass pipes, we are getting back to the pre-war normal of 20 million barrels...

A New York woman plotted to bomb the state Capitol in Albany after pledging allegiance to ISIS and celebrating the 9/11 terror attacks, the FBI said Thursday. Jessica Bowie, 35, from Albany, allegedly began strategizing the attack in July — and planned to place the bomb in a DoorDash food delivery bag, taking apparent glee in the bloodshed it would cause,the feds wrote in a criminal complaint. “Blowing kafirs [non-Muslims] brains out is beautiful,” she told someone who turned out to be an FBI informant, the complaint said. She allegedly purchased bomb materials from a Home Depot on Aug. 5...

US president also says any country that trades with Iran will ‘face tremendous economic consequences’. US President Donald Trump has again threatened Iran with unprecedented economic action, accusing Tehran of failing to seize an opportunity to reach a deal as talks aimed at ending the more than five-month conflict between the two countries remain deadlocked. In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” against Iran, using his signature all-caps style. He said Iran had “failed to take” the opportunity to make a deal and would...

The Jerusalem Post @Jerusalem_Post: The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, Roman Gofman, held a phone call with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani last week, prior to the airstrike on a Syrian military base. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the strikes were due to Turkish military presence in Syria.

The Strait of Hormuz "will not be opened," Iranian warned on Tuesday, "Until the U.S. commitments in the memorandum—including lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, lifting oil sanctions, ending threats and military operations on all fronts, and the other conditions to which the U.S. committed—are implemented." I guess that settles it — the Strait is firmly in the Islamic Republic's grip. Not so fast. On the flip side, President Donald Trump said earlier this week that the U.S. naval blockade against Iran "remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been...

DAMASCUS, Syria — Israel struck an air base in northwest Syria early Tuesday, saying it aimed to prevent Turkish troops from deploying there. Turkey, which has close ties with the Syrian government and has been providing assistance to Syria's military, has tense relations with Israel. The rival countries have sought to curb each other's influence in neighboring Syria. Eight strikes hit the runway of the Abu Duhur air base in the northwestern province of Idlib, causing damage but no casualties, state TV said. Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani told reporters in Damascus that Syria condemns the "Israeli aggression," adding that...

We already know how woke-crazy Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's half-sister at the University of Chicago is -- a screaming lunatic radical whose loathing for the U.S. knows no bottom. Hear her in action, here and here.Now we learn that his mom, Fatten Fathy Elkomy, had her own way of hating on America.According to Townhall's Amy Curtis:It turns out Fatten Fathy Elkomy worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), which was also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency, from 1999 through at least 2004.The IARA ran 40 offices worldwide and claimed to focus on healthcare and providing for...

Islamic State terrorists have claimed the killing of at least 130 Christians in three weeks of violence across Ituri Province, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the most recent and deadliest incident on Sunday, August 9, fighters from Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) killed 32 Christians and captured 24 in a coordinated assault on three neighboring villages in Mambasa Territory. In what Islamic State (IS – also known as ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) propaganda described as “a bloody attack,” the terrorists also burned down more than 60 homes and shops.

Arab state reportedly urged another potential Israel-normalization country to sign deal with Israel, then go to war ‘when time is right’ i24NEWS. August 10, 2026. Information cleared for publication by the Israeli military has revealed a reported exchange between several countries in the region over a possible agreement with Israel, according to reports by Israeli media Kan 11 and Channel 12. According to the reports, one Arab state allegedly advised another country to first sign an agreement with Israel and then, if circumstances became more favorable, launch a war against the Jewish state. identity of the country that received the...

Iran announced on Aug. 16 that it will offer a bounty of $30,000 to any individual who “kills or captures a U.S. soldier and hands them over to authorities,” according to Iranian state media. Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Major General Amir Hatami revealed the bounty on Sunday at a ceremony that was allegedly held to honor journalists. Hatami suggested he’d double the reward if an Iranian woman killed or captured a U.S. soldier. The government suggested that it would even purchase the weapon used in the murder and display it in a museum. In a separate announcement on Sunday, Iran’s armed...

When a local pastor condemned officials for naming a busy intersection after Hezbollah-supporter Osama Siblani in September 2025, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (above in 2024) called the pastor “an Islamophobe,” declaring: “I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.” When a local pastor condemned officials for naming a busy intersection after Hezbollah-supporter Osama Siblani in September 2025, Dearborn Mayor...

A top Iranian lawmaker appeared to warn President Donald Trump about his personal safety Saturday, telling the president to “worry about his own security” as tensions escalate over control of the Strait of Hormuz. “The U.S. President ought to worry about his own security rather than his endless bluffing regarding the Strait of Hormuz; before he ends up hiding in a food truck,” Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, wrote on X. Azizi’s reference to a “food truck” appeared to invoke an extraordinary security operation during Trump’s trip to Turkey last month, when...

Graham Platner just had an SS Nazi tattoo. Abdul El-Sayed will appear at an event with an imam who praised the Holocaust. I previously mentioned that Chuck Ross at the Free Beacon had reported that Abdul Mohammed El-Sayed will appear at an ISNA conference where one of the speakers will be Imam Tariq Masood who “admitted in a sermon that he forced his 13-year-old niece into marriage, and advised his followers to do the same with their young female relatives. Masood also said it was a husband’s decision whether or not his wife can go to college or must remain...

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, said: “Calling Israel’s defensive war against Hamas a ‘genocide’ is not activism; it is a modern blood libel dressed up in academic language.” By Marhilda Heller. August 13, 2026. An alliance of 55 organizations has this week launched Gaza GenoLIE, an educational initiative about the “generated and orchestrated genocide lie promoted by anti-Zionists and antisemitic networks in the US, Europe and around the world.” It further says that the “Gaza Genocide” is one of the biggest lies of the 21st century. The website includes eight pieces of what it describes as “the Gaza GenoLIE...

Confirmed Royal Jet flights from Abu Dhabi into Iran have intensified scrutiny of unverified claims that the United Arab Emirates released billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, including gold, to reduce its exposure to future Iranian attacks. The allegations, attributed exclusively to anonymous senior sources in Tehran, describe financial transfers designed to preserve an apparent pause in Iranian missile and drone strikes against Emirati territory during the wider 2026 United States-Iran confrontation. Flight-tracking data confirms that a Royal Jet Boeing 737-7KK Business Jet, registered A6-RJA, conducted short return flights from Abu Dhabi to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and Karaj’s Payam...