Free Republic

The Trump administration is barring Iran’s top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military official in Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif requested a visa a “few weeks ago” to enter the United States to attend a Jan. 9 Security Council meeting on the importance of upholding the U.N. Charter, according to a diplomatic source familiar with...

Iran is stewing over the potential loss of its most advanced centrifuge production plant after some kind of explosion and fire severely damaged it. Naturally, the Iranians are being pretty closemouthed about the incident. They haven’t said much about the fire and explosion at what was suspected to be a nuclear research facility in the mountains outside of Tehran, either. But it’s hard to hide what happened at Natanz — the nuclear facility with the highest-profile in the country. And Iran is hinting that the destruction of its advanced centrifuge plant might have been caused by some kind of variation...

During demonstrations in downtown Portland, Oregon, protesters blocked traffic on Main Street and launched fireworks from the street, injuring officers, the Portland Police Bureau said in a Sunday statement. I DONT WANT ANY MORE OF CNN HERE.

Speaking on "Face the Nation," former National Security Adviser John Bolton dismissed US President Donald Trump's claims that he wasn't briefed about intelligence suggesting that Russia commissioned Taliban-linked fighters to kill US soldiers, The Guardian reports. "All intelligence is distributed along the spectrum of uncertainty," Bolton said. "And this intelligence ... by the administration’s own admission, was deemed credible enough to give to our allies. So the notion that you only give the really completely 100% verified intelligence to the president would mean you give him almost nothing. And that’s just not the way the system works." Former National Security...

For US National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that President Trump’s reelection could imperil Israel. Speaking with Israel’s Channel 13 in an interview which is set to be aired Thursday night, Bolton said he fears that if President Trump is reelected this November, it could create a ‘risk’ for Israel. Specifically, Bolton claimed that Trump is “eager” to open negotiations with Iran and could offer sanctions relief, something which would pose a “a danger”. .....

Israel was responsible for two blasts at Iranian facilities — one related to uranium enrichment, the other for missile production — over the past week, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Friday. The Al-Jareeda daily cited an unnamed senior source as saying that an Israeli cyberattack caused a fire and explosion at the largely underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in the predawn hours of Thursday morning. According to the source, this was expected to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by approximately two months. The newspaper also reported that last Friday Israeli F-35 stealth fighter jets bombed a site located in the...

S former top-ranking Obama official has revealed that the Democratic Party is prepared to support a “revolution” in the streets to force Donald Trump out of office if he wins re-election this fall. It’s a familiar face: Former Secretary of State John Kerry. He signaled that party leaders will support a violent “revolution,” if that’s what it takes.

Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper on Friday reported that Israel was responsible for a Thursday "accident" at an Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz. It is believed that the Natanz facility is used to enrich uranium. According to the Al-Jarida report, the explosion was caused by an "Israeli cyber attack" which targeted the computers which control the pressure gauges inside gas containers. Tehran has allegedly lost 80% of the uranium hexafluoride gas it needs in order to enrich uranium. The report also claimed that Israel is responsible for the Parchin blast which occurred last week. On Thursday, Iran's state news agency IRNA published...

My, but Iran must have a lot of defective “industrial gas tanks” lying around. A week after Iranian officials tried to explain away a massive explosion at Parchin as a civilian-area accident, a large fire at Natanz might prove more difficult to dismiss. Natanz, like Parchin, is a site where the US alleges that Iran has performed work on their nuclear-weapons program, and experts believe that uranium-enriching centrifuge work might have been the target this time: Iran says there has been an “incident” at one of its nuclear facilities.Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi did not...

The Vatican issued a statement Wednesday warning Israel that “unilateral actions” in the West Bank and Jordan Valley would seriously compromise peace efforts in the area. In its statement, the Holy See press office revealed the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, met with the Ambassadors of the United States of America and of the State of Israel on Tuesday. […] The Vatican’s “concern” relates to plans to extend Israeli law over parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley in an effort to safeguard Jewish settlements in the West Bank and shore up Israel’s western border by annexing...

Black Lives Matter protests joined anti-Israel demonstrators in a nationwide “Day of Rage” on Wednesday that included calls for Israel’s destruction and claims that Israel murders children, an allusion to medieval antisemitic blood libels. The Jewish News Service reported that antisemitic and anti-Israel groups organized the “Day of Rage” on July 1, the first day that Israel’s government said it could extend its law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”). The march, led by Harvard University rising senior Christian Tabash, attracted about 200 people who carried signs with messages either supporting the Palestinian Liberation Organization or...

Germany called on Israel not to annex the West Bank on Wednesday, saying the plans were “in contradiction with international law.” The motion was brought in the Bundestag by the three parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s broad coalition and was approved without opposing votes. All parliamentary groups, aside from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, warned that Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank would jeopardize Israel’s security and hopes of a two-state solution. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the plan threatened the stability of the entire Middle East. “Peace cannot be achieved by unilateral steps,” Maas...

The BBC has told its presenters and guests not to wear Black Lives Matter badges as the campaign was accused of “hijacking” George Floyd’s death for political reasons. Bosses at the corporation have decided not to allow “visual symbols of support” for Black Lives Matter to be worn on screen, senior sources told The Telegraph. It comes as a number of high-profile organisations were forced to backtrack on their support for the Black Lives Matter movement as its UK arm publicly criticised Israel and called on the British government to “defund the police”.

Leaders of civil rights organizations spoke out Tuesday night after a reporter from a Portland TV station tweeted anti-Palestinian sentiments from a professional account while covering a protest. Jenny Young, a reporter with KOIN, was at a rally at Peninsula Park in North Portland, and tweeted about a speaker who praised the BDS movement. BDS, which stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, is a Palestinian-led movement, which upholds the principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. Young described the speaker, who was not identified, as “openly anti-Zionist”, and the BDS movement as “an anti-Semitic...

Atrocities against religious minorities continue unabated in the terror state of Pakistan. In another such incident, two members of a Christian family were shot for buying a house in a Muslim dominated neighbourhood in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Nadeem Joseph and his mother-in-law Elizabeth Masih were brutally attacked by one Salman Khan and his sons a few days after Nadeem Joseph bought a house in TV Colony in Peshawar, Pakistan on June 4, 2020. Police have arrested several members of Salman Khan’s family in connection with the incident while he still remains on the run. Police are in the...

Four House Democrats have written to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, JTA reported on Monday. The letter was initiated by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Betty McCollum of Minnesota. The letter to Pompeo is circulating among Democrats in a bid to add signatures. “Should the Israeli government move forward with the planned annexation with this administration’s acquiescence, we will work to ensure non-recognition as well as pursue conditions on...

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of May 2020: The Slaughter of Christians Nigeria: From January 2020 to mid-May 2020, Muslim terrorists massacred at least 620 Christians (470 by Fulani herdsmen and 150 by Boko Haram). According to a May 14 report: Militant Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram … have intensified their anti-Christian violence … with hacking to death in the past four months and half of 2020 of no fewer than 620 defenseless Christians, and wanton burning or destruction of their centers of worship and learning. The atrocities against Christians have...

At least five people have died after shots were fired at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi, according to rescue officials on Monday. Rescue and paramilitary security personnel are at the scene in an ongoing operation, Azeem said. Video shows security and barricades outside the stock exchange in Karachi, according to CNN affiliate Geo News. Abid Ali, director of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, said in a media briefing on Geo News that four attackers entered the compound and started firing but were killed by security forces. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to...

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.” And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

Ali Shaigan The Associated Press is reporting that a huge explosion occurred on Friday that rattled Tehran and lit up the horizon. The site of the blast was a region where many nuclear experts believe Iran conducted high-explosive tests relating to its nuclear program. The explosion happened in the Alborz mountains, just east of the city. Satellite photos show the massive extent of the blast. This Sentinel-2 GIF shows the difference at Khojir Missile Base in 🇮🇷#Iran (35.687799 N, 51.651720 E) because of the recent explosion: it looks like fire burnt down 20 ha of land WNW of a now...