Free Republic

Pics at link. American troops are in the process of clearing debris and rubble from an area the size of a football stadium Monday at a military base in western Iraq that was hit by Iranian airstrikes. The attack on the Ain al-Asad base last Wednesday, where about 1,500 American and coalition forces are stationed, was carried out in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani. An Associated Press crew touring the facility Monday saw damaged military trailers as well as forklifts lifting rubble and loading it onto trucks. “There were more than 10 large missiles...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, a U.S. government official told CBS, adding that the approval had been granted on the condition that Iran’s involvement could be denied. If what other U.S. officials are saying is accurate, this condition has not been met, however. Earlier this week, a team of U.S. security experts who traveled to Saudi Arabia to examine the wreckage of the drones and cruise missiles fired against Aramco’s Khurais field and the Abqaiq processing facility said they had determined the weapons were manufactured in Iran. Snip They also showed surveillance...

Rep. Adam Schiff. D-Calif., often a harsh critic of President Trump, agrees with him on one thing: Iran was behind the bombing of two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz last week. The Islamic nation has denied responsibility for the attack, but Trump and his administration were quick to point the finger at them. While the president has been accused of prematurely reaching conclusions after past attacks, Schiff and Trump are on the same page this time. "There's no question that Iran is behind the attacks," Schiff said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday morning. "I think the evidence...

Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal has held secret state-level meetings in Oman's capital Muscat, a senior official in Jerusalem told Haaretz. Diplomatic relations between Israel and Oman were cut off in 2000 at the start of the second intifada. The official said that Gal had left for Muscat with the ministry's deputy director for Middle East affairs, Yaakov Hadas, and other high-ranking officials. The Israeli delegation left on Sunday and will return Tuesday. The formal reason for the visit was participation in the annual conference of the Middle East Desalination Research Center, in which Israel is a member. However, Gal...

Top News Story Bad news for US on Iran at the G8 Summit. Amir Taheri, Arab News explains why the US is unlikely to getting help on Iran at next month's G8 Summit in Russia.   Khomeini's Grandson requests US military action in Iran. The Telegraph reported that the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country's clerical regime.   Iran prepares to respond to thePerm-5 proposal. The Washington Post reported that Iran's foreign minister said the government likely would suggest...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad again calls for an independent investigation of the Holocaust. Yahoo News reported that Iran's president said that the six-nation incentive package aimed at getting his country to halt uranium enrichment was a "step forward" but also repeated assertions that the Nazi Holocaust was unproven, saying it should be independently investigated.Khaleej Times Online reported British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees no need for an inquiry into the Holocaust.   US and Russia expect an answer from Iran on the Perm-5 proposal. Yahoo News reported that while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran had made...

Top News Story US Senate votes down Iran Freedom and Support Act and passes weaker version. DoctorZin reported that the Iran Freedom Support Act was to be voted on in the Senate Thursday.Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that faced with legislation that would force America to take a harder line on Iran, Secretary of State Rice worked closely yesterday with a key Senate Democrat to kill the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   Iran threatens to develop a "nuclear defense." The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran's defense minister vowed his country would "use nuclear defense as a potential"...

Top News Story Shiite Iraq's attacked Iranian Consulate in Basra. Yahoo News reported that about 500 followers of a Shiite cleric attacked the Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, throwing stones and setting fire to a building in the diplomatic complex. Photos.   Iran no longer wants talks on Iraq with US. IranMania reported that Iran is no longer interested in direct talks with the United States over the situation in Iraq.   Iran claims no deadline was given to reply to the Perm-5. IranMania reported that Iran insisted it has not been given...

Top News Story Secret nuclear enrichment plants exposed. Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported that new evidence is emerging that Iran has built a secret plant, located some 20 kilometers to the northeast of Tehran near the Lashgarak dam, which houses a clandestine centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, where Iran is making nuclear weapons material.   What are Russia and China up to? Yahoo News reported that China and Russia have again refused to join with other big powers in threatening sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.The Financial Times reported that a central Asian summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization which...

Top News Story A roundup of reports on the women’s demonstration in Tehran today. Photos. Iran Press News provided a detailed report on the Islamic Regime's attack and assault attendants of the peaceful Women's March. Among those present at the march were academics, well-known human and women's rights activists, student leaders, and members of the greater Tehran bus drivers union. Photos.Radio Free Europe reported on the Women’s March and eyewitnesses claimed there were maybe as many security forces as protesters.SMCCDI reported that Islamist female agents named by most Iranians as "Black Crows" (due to their black veils), used of...

Top News Story RFE Iran's top nuclear negotiator has urged Muslim countries to "choose the path" of nuclear development. Ali Larijani was speaking to reporters after arriving in Egypt for talks to discuss the controversy over Iran's nuclear program. In Tehran, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Iran will make its own offer in response to a Western incentives package aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Mottaki added that Tehran's offer could be a variation of the proposal made by Europe, the United States, China, and Russia, or an entirely new package. Western powers have given Iran several...

Top News Story Major demonstrations on Iran expected in the next few days. Protests expected Sunday in Germany against Ahmadinejad during World Cup Games. The Observer reported that Iran's Football team will be met with a series of protests across Germany during their World Cup campaign as anger mounts against the country's viciously anti-Semitic President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Spiegel Online reported that in Bavaria, where Iran is set to play its first match in Nuremberg on Sunday, the state's interior minister has expressed concerns that Iranian intelligence agents may seek to stage what he described as a "provocative action" aimed at...

Top News Story SMCCDI Tens have been arrested, in the last days, in several Iranian cities with the approach of Iran-Mexico World Cup soccer game on Sunday June 11th (18:00 Germany's Local time). Plainclothes agents and militiamen have arrested several of those qualified as potential "hooligans or trouble makers", in an effort to avoid any massive popular unrest to take place following the game. Arrests have been made in cities, such as, Tehran, Mashad, Esfahan, Hamedan, Bookan, Rasht, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Marivan and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e). More repressive measures are to take place with the start of the Sunday's game,...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad: the West has been "defeated!" Breitbart.com reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussing the West's nuclear proposal, said that the "international monopolists have been defeated."   Iran tries to provoke the West: it begins new nuclear enrichment. The New York Post reported that Iranian researchers began a new round of nuclear enrichment on the same day that a European proposal for ending the crisis over Iran's nuclear program was presented in Tehran.   Diplomats convinced Iran will reject Perm-5 proposal. The Guardian reported that diplomats believe that Iran will reject the Int'l. offer in the...

Top News Story The Perm-5 +1 offers Iran "the world," but fails to give Iran what it really wants. Michael Ledeen, National Review Online pointed out that while some have suggested that we send Bill Clinton to negotiate with the mullahs on our behalf, it isn’t necessary; we’ve just adopted his methods.Khaleej Times Online reported that the United States and other world powers have offered possible guarantees for Iran’s ”terroritorial integrity” as part of its nuclear proposal.Times Online thinks that the world’s latest offer to Iran — a "clever one" — has prompted the most civil response from Tehran...

Top News Story Iran receives the Perm-5 +1 Proposal. Yahoo News reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an international proposal on the nuclear crisis and the two sides held "good" talks.Bloomberg reported that President George W. Bush said Iran's response to a U.S.-backed initiative aimed a resolving a standoff over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is a "positive" first step.New York Post reported that while the Bush administration offered to join the negotiations with Iran, Ahmadinejad quickly rejected any cessation of enrichment. But the U.S. government is refusing to take no for an answer.Reuters reported...

Top News Story What the Iranian regime really wants. The Washington Post reported that a senior Iranian official said: "What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China."   US makes more offers to Iran. Reuters reported that the incentives to be offered on to Iran include a proposal to allow Tehran to purchase aircraft parts from Boeing Co. and Airbus.   US counting on China as a mediator with Iran? SFGate reported that the U.S. is counting on China as mediator with Iran.   US and Iran in secret...

Top News Story Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji is in Moscow. Moscow Times reported that Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji arrived in Moscow to receive this year's Golden Pen of Freedom award.   Iran's Supreme threatens to cut off the world's oil supply. The Herald reported that the Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said attempts to punish Tehran would jeopardize the world's oil supply.Yahoo News reported that Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned: "If you make any mistake (and invade Iran), definitely shipment of energy from this region will be seriously jeopardized."Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali...

Top News Story Reuters The former American president, Jimmy Carter, has said that the United States should begin talks with Iran without preconditions. Mr Carter believes prerequisites could present the Iranian Government with too great an impediment to overcome. His comments are significant, given that he was the president when US relations with Iran hit an all-time low. He witnessed the Iranian revolution and the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. He struggled for 444 days to release the US Embassy staff held hostage. A failed rescue attempt led by the US military brought about the...

Top News Story Russia and China reportedly will not to oppose sanctions. ABC News reported that a European Union diplomat said: "There is something like a catalog of sanctions and we can pick and choose from them. The agreement reached ... is also that Russia and China can abstain from any sanctions, but not say no."   But military force against Iran "is not on the agenda." The Guardian reported that Britain said that military force against Iran is not on the agenda in the international impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment program.Reuters reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov...