Free Republic

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Environment Minister said Thursday a clandestine oil deal that would have turned a scuba divers’ paradise into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets has effectively been blocked.... ...The secret deal would have significantly increased the number of oil tankers docking and unloading in the Israeli resort city of Eilat. It was struck last year between the Europe-Asia Pipeline Company, the Israeli government-owned corporation, and MED-RED Land Bridge, a joint Israeli-Emirati venture, following the historic agreement establishing formal diplomatic ties... ...Senior officials in former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — including his...

On January 5, a giant statue of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian regime's dead terrorist mastermind, was displayed in the city of Shahr-e Kord. The regime unveiled the statue with much noise and fanfare just ahead of the second anniversary of Soleimani's elimination in a US drone strike in 2020. Mere hours later, the statue was engulfed in flames by dissidents, dealing a major blow against state propaganda to bill the former commander of the terrorist Qods Force as a "hero." Just a couple of days prior, the regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi delivered a televised speech in which he promised revenge...

When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a eulogy for the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he described the spiritual leader and activist as "a crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and peace, not just in South Africa, the country of his birth, but around the world as well." Over the years, Bishop Tutu's tireless efforts brought him in contact with countless other crusaders for the exact overarching cause. That friendship began when Bishop Tutu condemned the Iranian regime's crackdown on the mass anti-regime protests of 2009. The following year he sent a message of support to...

The commander of Iran's navy said in a speech on January 7 that the modern-day Saudi Arabian royal family are descendants of Jews who fought early Muslim tribes. The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on January 7 that the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia were actually Jewish, and that their conflict with Iran harkens back to 7th century battles between Muslim and Jewish tribes. The speech was aired on Iran's Bushehr TV and translated by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute. “We cannot bear to see injustice in a Muslim country that is perpetrated...

While American forces were able to shoot down the terror drones, these latest acts of Iranian diplomacy came complete with the words “Soleimani’s revenge” scrawled on the drones. The latest Iranian attacks on Americans forces use Soleimani’s death as a pretext, but the attacks began before the Iranian terror boss was killed, and have sharply escalated under Biden in response to his appeasement of the Islamic terror regime.

ight rockets targeted the US Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone late Sunday, Iraq's military and Iraqi officials said, sparking fears of renewed unrest as next month's anniversary of the US slaying of an Iranian general draws near. An Iraqi military statement said an 'an outlawed group' launched eight rockets targeting the Green Zone, injuring one Iraqi security person manning a checkpoint and causing material damage to a residential complex and some cars. The residential complex is usually empty. The US Embassy's C-RAM defense system, which is used to destroy missiles in mid-air, was activated to deflect the attack,...

Forces at the US embassy in Baghdad are attempting to intercept what could be rockets or suicide drones with radar-controlled rapid-fire guns, according to the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard. Multiple videos surfaced on Twitter around 1200 ET, one by Kohnavard of Counter rocket, artillery, and mortar (CRAM) weapons activated and firing large bursts into the night sky to combat incoming rockets and or suicide drones in the air before they hit the embassy. “US embassy’s anti-rocket system CRAM in Baghdad activated a few seconds ago. I heard explosions,” Kohnavard tweeted. Breaking US embassy’s anti rocket system C-RAM in Baghdad activated a...

Two armed drones were shot down as they approached an Iraqi military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport, Iraqi security sources said, adding that nobody was hurt in the incident. An official of the US-led international military coalition stationed there said the base’s defence system engaged “two fixed-wing suicide drones… they were shot down without incident”.

Reduced hydropower output in Iran amid a water scarcity has prompted Tehran to suspend electricity exports to neighboring Iraq, which relies on Iranian power and gas supply, Iraq’s Electricity Minister Adil Kareem was quoted as saying by Iranian Mehr News Agency on Tuesday. Major Iraqi power plants are dependent on Iranian natural gas supply, and Iraq also imports electricity from Iran, as Baghdad’s power generation is not enough to ensure domestic supply, especially with crumbling infrastructure and 110-plus degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Even after the U.S. slapped sanctions on Iran’s energy exports in 2018, Iraq continues to import natural...

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq agreed to bolster security and economic cooperation at a tripartite summit Sunday that saw an Egyptian head of state visit Iraq for the first time in three decades. The visits by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II came as Iraq seeks to move closer to Arab allies of the United States in the Middle East. FRANCE 24's Jack Hewson tells us more.

Last Thursday was the second anniversary of the killing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani; while the date passed virtually unnoticed in the United States, it was a major event in the Islamic Republic of Iran, featuring numerous threats of revenge from enraged Iranian leaders. One of these stood out from the others: Soleimani’s successor as Quds Force commander declared that the revenge would come from inside the United States. Iran’s state-controlled Tasnim News Agency reported that Brigadier General Esmaeil Qaani was “delivering a speech to a ceremony in Mashhad” for the anniversary...

In an unprecedented meeting on December 28, 2021, at the private residence of Benny Gantz in Rosh Haayin (central Israel), Israel’s Defense Minister hosted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas. Gantz approved significant trust-building concessions to the Palestinians. Aiming at bolstering the failing fortunes of the PA and Abu Mazen’s in particular, against the increasing influence of Hamas in the West Bank. Gantz approved the addition of 600 entry permits to Israel for Palestinian businessmen, as well as Palestinian vehicles. Dozens of Palestinian officials will receive VIP permits. Moreover, Gantz agreed to provide the PA with advanced tax payments...

The Biden administration is taking seriously a string of recent threats and sanctions from Iran against Trump administration officials around the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 3, 2020 strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s actions may indicate Iran is plotting to assassinate the officials. On Saturday, Iran announced sanctions against 51 Americans, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley as well as several individuals who worked with the Trump administration, like former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and private military contractor Erik Prince. While sanctions typically yield economic punishment, current and former U.S. officials...

Iran’s imposition of “sanctions” on dozens of Americans amounts to an assassination threat against members of former President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a senior U.S. official who threatened “severe consequences” for any harm done to them. “Make no mistake: the United States of America will protect and defend its citizens,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday. “This includes those serving the United States now and those who formerly served.” Iranian officials have made explicit their interest in killing one of the people involved in the U.S. strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani....

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran plans to buy 950 tonnes of uranium ore from Kazakhstan over three years and expects to get Russian help in producing nuclear fuel, its top nuclear official said in remarks published on Saturday. The acquisition would not violate Iran’s landmark 2015 deal with world powers over its disputed nuclear program as the deal did not set limits on the Islamic Republic’s supplies of uranium ore. The report by the Iranian Students’ News Agency ISNA comes a day after the U.N. atomic watchdog said Iran’s official stock of enriched uranium had fallen by half after large amounts...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a sharp warning to the Islamic State group, saying after the United States is done grieving the death of two American journalists, their killers will have to answer for their actions. "They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice," he forcefully told an audience at an event on the New Hampshire-Maine border, according to CNN. "Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside." Biden opened his remarks in memory of Steven Sotloff, the journalist who was beheaded...

The UN imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis in 2015. The United States and ally Saudi Arabia — which leads the military coalition backing the Yemeni government — have long accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Citing a confidential report by a UN Security Council panel of experts on Yemen, the Journal wrote that boats and land transport were used to smuggle weapons made in Russia, China and Iran into Yemen. deck, in a photo released Dec. 21, 2021. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Elisha Smith/US Navy via AP) WASHINGTON — The United Nations...

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Quds Force said that the ground for the hard revenge against the United States for the assassination of Lt. General Qassem Soleimani will be set from within the US. Delivering a speech to a ceremony in Mashhad marking the second anniversary of martyrdom of General Soleimani and remembering Martyrs of the "Resistance Front"Defending the Holy Shrines, The IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmaeil Qaani underlined that the Islamic Republic will take revenge for General Soleimani’s assassination in its own way. “We will prepare ground for the hard revenge...

Unlike their Western counterparts, many Muslims are fond of their heroes of the past. Unlike their Western counterparts, many Muslims are fond of their heroes of the past — particularly the jihadist types who for centuries thrived on terrorizing the West. This was recently underscored by Barbaros: Sword of the Mediterranean, a television series, written and produced in Turkey, that aired late last year and is dedicated to highlighting the clash between Islam and Christendom — in a way, of course, that demonizes the latter and extols the former. The highly fictionalized series revolves around four Muslim brothers and their...

On Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted: “Martyr Soleimani is an eternal reality that will live on forever. His assassins – including Trump & the like – will go down in history’s garbage bin, but of course after receiving retribution in this world for the crime they committed .” This is a clear threat, but Twitter has not banned or suspended Khamenei’s account. After all, he was threatening Donald Trump, and as far as Twitter is concerned, what could be wrong with that?Khamenei was referring, of course, to Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force commander...