Free Republic

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Lufthansa said on Wednesday it suspended flights to and from Tehran from April 6 until probably April 11, "due to the current situation in the Middle East". Countries in the region and the United States have been on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran in response to a suspected bombing by Israeli warplanes of the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1. "We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East and are in close contact with the authorities. The safety of our guests and crew members is Lufthansa's top priority," a...

The US has picked up intelligence on what an Iranian retaliatory strike for the alleged Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus in which a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was eliminated, will look like, CBS News reported on Friday. According to the report, the American intelligence indicates that Iran is planning a retaliatory attack that would include a swarm of Shaheed loitering drones and cruise missiles. Officials quoted in the report say the timing and target are unknown, but a proportional response to the Damascus attack would be to hit an Israeli diplomatic facility. The attack...

The Health Ministry today (Thursday) summoned all hospital managers for a planning meeting due to the threats from Iran. Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov asked hospital directors and the heads of the health system to continue preparing for a scenario of a mass-casualty incident and to hold drills for medical staff to be prepared to treat patients and reinforce medical staff. The meeting was held in light of Iran's threats following the assassination of a senior Revolutionary Guards leader in Damascus earlier this week. The Health Ministry stated that "the level of preparedness of the health system has...

With Israel's embassies around the world on a heightened state of alert, and extra IDF reservists called up, and home and weekend leave for all combat troops having been abruptly canceled Thursday, the Israeli population is anxiously awaiting a response - with some reports saying residents are already seeking the safety of bomb shelters. Tehran has vowed that vengeance is coming soon for the Monday Israeli airstrike on its embassy in Damascus. Most pundits believe this will take the form of ballistic missiles raining down on Israeli cities. But Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly vowing that if the Islamic...

Currently, Iran has a uranium stockpile to create 8 to ten nuclear bombs. But thanks to this nuclear deal, Iran must reduce its stockpile of uranium by 98%, and will keep its level of uranium enrichment at 3.67% — significantly below the enrichment level needed to create a bomb. On January 16, 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful. Before this agreement, Iran's breakout time -- or the time it would have taken for Iran to gather enough...

In an alarming development, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the former head of Iran's nuclear agency has implied in remarks broadcast on Monday that Iran has everything it needs for an A-bomb. In a televised interview, Salehi, who was also foreign minister (2010-2013), was asked if Iran has achieved the capability of developing a nuclear bomb. Avoiding a direct answer he stated, "We have [crossed] all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology. Here's an example: Imagine what a car needs; it needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, a gearbox. You're asking if we've made the gearbox, I say yes. Have...

During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of tragic losses in World War I contributed to pushing American public opinion and policy toward isolationism. Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America. The leaders of the isolationist movement drew upon history to bolster their position. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington had advocated non-involvement in European wars and politics. For much of...

America’s antagonists may not be formally allied, but they are aligned in a critical area — the Eurasian heartland — and in critical ways. An overstretched US cannot react to one problem without considering the impact on its ability to deal with others. The demands on American statecraft will be severe, as Washington confronts an array of problems it can’t easily walk away from and certainly can’t afford to see escalate all at once. In some ways, America’s predicament resembles the period before World War II. Leave aside that no US rival has committed aggression or atrocity on the scale...

One of Beijing's enduring hobbies is accusing Washington of violating or abusing international law. This selective outrage is justifiably ignored, given China’s unwillingness to abide by international law and disregard for U.N. arbitration concerning demarcation in the South China Sea. “International law with Chinese characteristics” was easily mocked and ignored when American deterrence and international safeguards stymied Beijing’s ambitions. Unfortunately, that security architecture is unraveling. In 2009, China began to make expansive claims vis-à-vis the South China Sea when it unveiled its infamous nine-dash line, which claimed vast swathes of maritime territory. In 2016, the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration...

Key Takeaways: Iran in the Region: An Israeli airstrike targeted a building directly adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing senior IRGC Quds Force commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and some of his top subordinates. Israel targeted Zahedi as part of an air campaign that it has conducted to disrupt the Iranian transfer of military materiel to its proxies and partners in Lebanon and Syria. Iran and its Axis of Resistance may attack US and/or Israeli targets in the coming weeks in retaliation for the killing of Zahedi. Northern Gaza Strip: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded a...

Iran is seeking to create “strategic depth” in the Mediterranean Sea, Iranian military adviser Yahya Safavi said in a recent speech. This appears to admit Tehran’s larger ambitions in the region.Iran has already taken over swaths of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, using proxies, and it has operationalized the Houthis in Yemen to attack ships in the Red Sea. Tehran also backs Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. It now appears to have even larger ambitions.Safavi is a former commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He now works as a military adviser to the Iranian regime and has an academic role...

Last week, Joe Biden issued a schoolmarmish warning to Israel, which he has been browbeating for months to placate his party’s anti-Israel left and Muslim American voters in Michigan, a critical swing state. Speaking to the press, he threatened, “There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan – if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”This solicitude for Muslims’ sensitivity about their faith bespeaks the West’s long bad habit of caring more about Islam––the faith that conquered and occupied, and to this day still occupies, much of the Christian Roman...

Now it's time for our new feature, Loathe Island. It's a bit like Love Island except it's for people we hate and basically what you're going to do is banish them to an island where they all have to slither around together until they all die.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has fired two ballistic missiles from launchers disguised as standard shipping containers that were hosted aboard one of its sea base-like vessels. This particular combination, which has not been seen to date, greatly expands the reach with which those weapons could be used to strike potential targets by surprise, especially given that shipping containers can be embarked on any vessel that has the space to accommodate them. The country's IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency reports that two "Fateh class" ballistic missiles were recently launched from Shahid Mahdavi, which the Iranian Navy took delivery of in...

War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz announced that Israel is preparing for an operation in the southern town of Rafah in Gaza after the civilians are evacuated from the area. His statement was made during a press briefing on Wednesday evening. Gantz, the head of the National Unity party, also claimed that unilateral international recognition of a Palestinian state, without bilateral agreements, is “a tailwind for terrorism.” “It would be a mistake to give such a tailwind to terrorism,” Gantz said. “Political arrangements must take place directly, otherwise they will not be sustainable. In any future situation, Israel will maintain its...

"The Middle East looks set for a path of escalation on multiple fronts as Israeli forces close in on what is left of southern Gaza, and as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch their most damaging strike yet on a ship in the Red Sea.The crew of the British-owned, Belize-flagged bulk carrier MV Rubymar were forced to abandon ship in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, receiving help from a nearby merchant vessel and coalition warship to reach a nearby port after “two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” according to U.S. Central Command." (snip) Twenty-six...

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened on Friday that his armed group possesses rockets capable of reaching “anywhere” in Israel as the IDF says that its forces drilled war scenarios on the northern front. “The Americans and Israelis should know that they are also facing a people in Palestine that will not back down, no matter how many victims there’ll be,” he told his supporters via video link at a memorial event commemorating his terrorist group’s “martyred commanders” who were killed in recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. "Hezbollah possesses tremendous and precise missile capabilities that can reach anywhere from Kiryat...

Israel carried out covert attacks on two major gas pipelines inside Iran this week, two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps told The New York Times on Friday. The attacks resulted in explosions that disrupted the flow of heat and cooking gas to provinces with millions of people, the report said. “The enemy’s plan was to completely disrupt the flow of gas in winter to several main cities and provinces in our country,” Iran’s Oil Minister, Javad Owji, told Iranian media on Friday. Owji, who had previously referred to the blasts as “sabotage and...

After months of fighting, Hamas had been forced to fall back to its stronghold in Rafah on the Egyptian border. And the pressure on Israel not to go into Rafah intensified. Not only AOC and Bernie Sanders, but Biden warned Israel not go in because of the “humanitarian impact”. Israel went in and brought out two hostages. After the previous hostage deal, Hamas supporters, including AOC, kept hammering home the claim that the only way to free the hostages is to cut a deal with Hamas. But cutting deals with terrorists just leads to more dead bodies and more hostages....

The Palestinian deceit: The true story after 75 years of unbelievable anti-Israeli fake news.One issue on which the historical assessment is almost unanimously in favour of the ‘Palestinian’ side is undoubtedly that of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The very few publications that offer a more cautious or at least neutral assessment of the Israeli camp come mainly from Jewish or Israeli authors. What was lacking was a counter-cultural and therefore courageous, well-documented, yet fluent and not infrequently ironic vade mecum on a very complex subject, written by someone who is not a party to the conflict. The reader will be surprised...