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The Hamas terror organization stated that they appreciated Lavrov's comments, saying his comments "confirms Washington’s criminal role in the continued suffering of our Palestinian people." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, in an interview with Russian media on Thursday, that he doubted the conspiracy theory that Israel knew in advance of plans that Hamas were planning on committing a massacre on October 7. “A lot of conspiracy theories are now appearing. Just the other day, our television and social networks once again conveyed a message from Western media, Western journalists, and researchers that the Israeli leadership, a year before October...

President Joe Biden greenlit the release of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, accused of acting as Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s top money launderer, on Wednesday. Saab’s release is allegedly the result of a prisoner swap with the rogue socialist regime that will also allow for the release of unjustly detained Americans in Venezuela, the Associated Press reported. Saab, 51, is a close personal ally of Maduro and is widely considered the socialist dictator’s financial brain. American law enforcement authorities arrested Saab in Cape Verde in 2020 after the Department of Justice indicted him in 2019 on charges of laundering $350...

Vladimir Putin has said that his alliance with Iran has turned the tide of the war in Ukraine, with Tehran’s support giving his forces momentum. Steady supplies of Iranian kamikaze drones, artillery shells and bullets have arrived in Russia since the invasion began, with Tehran quickly becoming one of the Kremlin’s closest military allies as both countries attempt to weather the impact of sanctions. “Our relations are developing very well. Please convey my best wishes to leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei,” Putin told Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, in Tehran on Thursday. Thanks to the Iranian head of state, Putin said,...

The hard-left Code Pink activists who face congressional scrutiny over their links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also have longstanding sympathies with Iran and Hamas and a record of bashing Israel, DailyMail.com can reveal. House Republicans have in recent weeks launched a probe against the outspoken, anti-war group to find out whether its leaders take Beijing's money and in return spread CCP propaganda. Against this backdrop, DailyMail.com spoke to observers who have tracked Code Pink's activities these past two decades, and found that members have sympathized with other despotic regimes globally.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time in eight years, Russian troops have ravaged Ukraine’s cities, raped its women, and stolen its children. Russian missiles and Iranian drones strike Ukrainian cities daily, often hitting civilian targets. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim. For Americans who believe in respect for national borders, the primacy of national sovereignty, and the right to self-defense, support for Ukraine is natural. Ukrainians are not asking for, nor do they want, US troops to help them fight Russia. All they ask for is the resources required to give them a fighting chance. Meanwhile,...

Khaled Mashal, a leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, claimed in an interview translated by MEMRI TV that Russia intends to use the brutal October 7 attack against Israel as teaching material in its military academies. “We want the Arab communities in the West to be active and cooperate with superpowers like China and Russia," Mashal said in the interview. "For your information, Russia has benefited from our attack, because we distracted the US from them and from Ukraine. “China saw our attack as a dazzling example," he continued. "The Russians told us that what happened on October 7 would...

Representative Mike Johnson vowed to support the wars in Ukraine and Israel in an interview after becoming House Speaker. The Congressman told Sean Hannity that China, Russia, and Iran make up an “axis of evil” that poses a huge threat to the US. “Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran, and they’re tied in now with Russia and China." Johnson explained that he does support the White House’s proposed $105 billion bill that would fund the War in Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza, fund Washington’s military buildup in the Pacific, and provide funds to increase security at the southern border....

Russia has been condemned for rolling out the red carpet in Moscow for senior leaders of Hamas and Iran — which one alarmed expert called proof President Vladimir Putin is forming a new “axis of terror against the West.” Russian Foreign Ministry officials met with Hamas leaders Bassem Naeem and Mousa Abu Marzouk in Moscow on Thursday, just weeks after their terror group stormed Israel and slaughtered at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians. The terrorist leaders posed with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Putin’s special envoy in the Middle East — who also met Thursday with Iran’s Deputy Foreign...

In a move condemned by Israel as an “obscene step” that “gives support to terrorism”, Russian officials met with the terror group who praised them for taking an “active role” in the war. Hamas praised Putin personally for his “stance” on the conflict and “acknowledged the active role of Russian diplomacy” in talks over “the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and strategies to halt the Israeli crimes”.

Hamas representatives are in Moscow, according to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “I can also say and confirm that representatives of the relevant Palestinian movement are on a visit to Moscow,” she says in a briefing, reported by the Russian RIA Novosti outlet. The outlet had earlier reported that Hamas politburo member Moussa Abu Marzuk was leading the delegation. Zakharova says that Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani is in Moscow as well.

A delegation from Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza, is currently visiting Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a weekly briefing on Thursday, without providing any further details. Russia's state-run RIA news agency, quoting a source from the Palestinian delegation, said senior Hamas member Abu Marzook was among those visiting Moscow. -snip- Separately, Zakharova also said that Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baghiri Kani was also currently visiting Moscow and had held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.

Russia and Iran are firming up bilateral relations in a 'trusting' atmosphere, Russia's foreign ministry said early on Tuesday after its chief, Sergei Lavrov, was received by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a visit to Tehran. "In a traditionally trusting atmosphere, current aspects of the bilateral agenda were substantively discussed with an emphasis on further building up the entire complex of multifaceted Russian-Iranian partnership," the foreign ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

China's special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, on Friday, said that Beijing shares the same position as its ally Russia on the Palestinian issue and are planning to work together to broker a peace deal and a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. "The fundamental reason for the current situation of the Palestine-Israel conflict is that the Palestinian people's lawful national rights have not been guaranteed," said Zhai in a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday, a day after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's special representative Mikhail Bogdanov in Qatar.

As The Post's Liz Sly recently noted, the war in Syria has become a tangled web of conflict dominated by "al Qaeda veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers." On the surface, those competing actors are fueled by an overlapping mixture of ideologies and political agendas. Just below it, experts suspect, they're powered by something else: Captagon. A tiny, highly addictive pill produced in Syria and widely available across the Middle East, its illegal sale funnels hundreds of millions of dollars back into the war torn country's black market economy each year, likely giving militias access to...

Palestinian protestors in the West Bank waved Russian and Hamas flags and carried portraits of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to express their fury about Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and U.S. support for Israel. Putin cropped up as Russia told Israel it was negotiating with Hamas for the return of some hostages. Protesters took to the streets of Hebron to show solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. After the rally, some protesters threw stones at Israeli forces and set tire fires. On Thursday, Russia's foreign minister proposed regular security talks...

Evidence suggests some of the weapons used by Hamas in a bloody attack on southern Israel earlier this month likely came from North Korea. While Pyongyang has repeatedly denied supplying the terrorist group with weapons, expert analysis along with a trove of evidence that includes video as well as munitions seized by Israel, suggests otherwise. At the heart of the controversy is the F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon fighters typically use against armored vehicles. An image published by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack features members of the terrorist organization wielding a rocket-propelled grenade with a distinctive red stripe...

#BREAKING Russian President Putin to meet China's Xi in Beijing on Wednesday: Kremlin pic.twitter.com/ingo4DM3Vy— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 16, 2023

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Moscow, Russian news media quoted the Palestinian envoy to Moscow as saying late on Monday. “We are awaiting an official statement from the Kremlin, from the Russian side, about when the visit will take place,” Russia’s RBC news outlet said, citing Ambassador Abdel Hafiz Nofal as saying. “An agreement has been reached that Mr. Abbas will come here to Moscow.”

Whatever practical cooperation emerges from this week's summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, their deepening relationship is aimed at sending their rivals a warning, analysts said. Calling each other "comrade", the men toasted their friendship on Wednesday after Putin showed Kim around Russia's most modern space launch facility and they held talks alongside their defence ministers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to visit North Korea, Pyongyang's state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended the invitation to Putin after attending the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. "Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship," KCNA said. Earlier, on Wednesday, Kim vowed Pyongyang's "full and unconditional support" for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. North Korean state media said the two leaders leaders committed themselves to a "common front to frustrate the imperialists' military threat and...