Free Republic

Revolutionary Guards Quds Force's notorious chief Qassem Suleimani severely injured in clashes south of Aleppo For nearly 5 years the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force’s notorious chief Qassem Suleimani has been spearheading Iran’s full-pledged support for the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. This shadowy figure has been the symbol of Tehran’s infamous plots in Syria, and reports have also indicated Suleimani was running the show and issuing orders to senior Syrian generals and political officials, and at times, even Assad himself. Enjoying the full support of and reporting only to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Suleimani had unimaginable authority in Syria. That...

We hope Sens. Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand are giving that devastating new profile of resident Obama’s foreign-policy guru a careful read. Because they’ll learn how they were all played for fools on the Iran nuclear deal by that aide, Ben Rhodes — and the resident. That applies especially to Schumer, who will be the Senate Democratic leader come January. Booker and Gillibrand hewed to the party line in backing the deal. Schumer gave it a thumb’s-down — but then refused to lobby his colleagues to take his side. Sen. Bob Menendez, on the other hand, is looking...

It's a great time to be a despotic tyrant who threatens your neighbors. And as Khamenei knows, to be quite open about it. Who's going to do anything? Who would be enough of a fool to think that anyone with real power in Iran thought otherwise? Oh. Right. As always, beware of media characterizations that pretend this or that Iranian official is “moderate” or “more moderate” or whatever. They’re grading on a pretty radical curve when they tell you that, but it’s irrelevant at any rate. Only the mullahas have real power in Iran, and lest you have any doubt...

"An act of God" was responsible for U.S. Navy sailors entering Iranian waters, leading to their arrest at gunpoint, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday told Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members who detained the Americans. "Your job was excellent, interesting and timely and, in fact, we must consider this incident as an act of God, who brought Americans into our waters so they would be arrested through your timely action and in that manner with their hands held above their heads," Khamenei told the group in a face-to-face meeting, according to a report on the supreme leader's...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders about the crisis in Syria. On his first trip to Iran in eight years, Putin met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday, as Russia nears a third month of military engagement in the conflict. The discussions come on a sidelines of a one-day trip to Iran for a summit of gas-exporting countries. Tehran and Moscow have supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war that has crippled the country since 2011 and killed over 250,000 people. The violence has displaced millions more. On...

Iran could announce a temporary halt to uranium enrichment before next month’s U.S. election in a move to save Barack Obama’s presidency, a source affiliated with high Iranian officials said today. The source, who remains anonymous for security reasons, said a three-person delegation of the Obama administration led by a woman engaged in secret negotiations yesterday with a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The delegation urged the Iranian leader to announce a halt to enrichment, even if temporary, before the Nov. 6 election, promising removal of some sanctions. The source said the delegation warned that a Mitt...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

The Iranian government is pressing the U.S. and others to give even more ground to Tehran in the already-sealed nuclear agreement, posing a new headache as the Obama administration and others try to implement the deal. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month demanded that sanctions be lifted entirely, not just suspended. A top Khamenei adviser reiterated that demand over the weekend -- ahead of potential informal talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Secretary of State John Kerry plans meet in the coming days in New York with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. According...

In a reference to the Republican Party debate, Iran’s Supreme Leader’s decried on Twitter that “presidential candidates try to satisfy Zionists.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to Wednesday night’s CNN-sponsored debate in a tweet on Thursday, part of a series of anti-Israel tweets. US govs put their people under Zionists custody.Isn’t it a shame that presidential candidates try to satisfy Zionists&prove their servitude? In a follow-up tweet, Khamenei reiterated a claim he made earlier this month that Israel will not last: Zionist regime is an imposed regime, made through coercion; no entity made by coercion would last. This regime will not...

A plane carrying Americans was forced to land in Iran by the Iranian Air Force. It was allowed to leave early Saturday. It isn't known if all are still aboard. Link only.(Excerpt) "A charter airplane carrying military contractors, including Americans, took off early Saturday from Iran, hours after its pilots were ordered to land because the flight plan was out of date, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said."

Obama's trusted partner in peace. In case you were wondering, the left already has a standard pat answer to this: He doesn’t mean it. Every time an Iranian leader vows to obliterate Israel, the left insists it’s all just bluster for internal political consumption - as if ayatollahs needed to run for re-election. They don’t, of course, and they’re not building nukes for no reason. They’re building them for this reason:

Iran is continuing its verbal attacks on Israel, with the latest remarks coming on Saturday by a close aide to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The aide, Seyed Mahmoud Nabavi, was replying to British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond’s recent remarks that Tehran has changed its policy on Israel, and underlined that fighting the “Zionist regime” is Iran’s everlasting policy. “Fight against the illegal Zionist regime is one of the immutable policies of Iran which has always been maintained,” Nabavi told the semi-official Fars news agency. He blasted Hammond’s comments and said, “Such words are incorrect since one...

Nonetheless, the president told 'The New Yorker' that the Iranian government's behavior was not as extreme as its rhetoric suggests. In his latest attempt to sell the public on the merits of the Iran nuclear agreement, US President Barack Obama told an American news magazine earlier this week that he was not naive about the threats against Israel made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's supreme leader. “His ideology is steeped with anti-Semitism, and if he could, without catastrophic costs, inflict great harm on Israel, I’m confident that he would,” Obama told journalist Robin Wright of The New Yorker....

President Barack Obama approved of Iran’s right to operate a nuclear program in 2011 during secret meetings with Iranian officials, according to new disclosures by Iran’s Supreme Leader. The comments, made earlier this year by Ali Khamenei, dispute claims by the Obama administration that it only began talking to Iran after the election of President Hassan Rouhani. Khamenei revealed in a recent speech that talks began in secret with anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying former President Mahmoud Ahmadenejad. At this time, Obama told the Iranians he endorses Iran’s right to have a nuclear program. “The issue of negotiating with the Americans is...

Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted a picture Saturday of President Obama committing suicide. Mr. Khameneitweeted “US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but…" The tweet was accompanied by an image of a silhouetted Mr. Obama holding a gun to his head with the caption “We welcome no war, not do we initiate any war, but If any war happens, the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.” The tweet has gained over 500 retweets and nearly 200 favorites so far....

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top foreign affairs adviser revealed on Tuesday that despite the nuclear deal sealed last Tuesday, international inspectors will not be allowed to visit Iran’s covert military sites that are said to house its secret nuclear weapons program. The aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, was quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency saying that world powers “have made some comments about defensive and missile issues, but Iran will not allow them to visit our military centers and interfere in decisions about the type of Iran’s defensive weapons.” His statement raises concerns even higher over the complete...

Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Reaffirms "Death to America" Slogan, Calls to Bring U.S. Leaders to Trial Channel 1 (Iran), IRINN TV (Iran) - July 18, 2015 - 00:01:42

"Which National Leader Is Truly Committed To Achieving The Nuclear Deal Outcomes He Envisions?" Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.), Right Side News Obama’s Version Of “Deal” Outcomes Presented At His July 15th News ConferenceExcerptsOBAMA: “The comprehensive long-term deal that we achieved with our allies and partners to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon represents a powerful display of American leadership and diplomacy. It shows what we can accomplish when we lead from a position of strength and a position of principle when we unite the international community around a shared vision and we resolve to solve problems peacefully. “But the bottom line...

The deal is done, so everyone can stop carping and go home. Barack Obama clearly feels that he has further cemented his legacy of brilliant foreign policy maneuvers and restoring peace to the planet by having John Kerry work out an agreement with Iran regarding their nuclear weapons program … er, I mean, their peaceful nuclear power program , which could last for up to five, eight or ten years. (Or could end tomorrow if the Iranians get tired of yanking our chains.) But on the plus side, at least our relations with the reclusive nation have improved, right?...

Iranian sources familiar with the details of a final agreement scheduled to be announced on Monday said sanctions and an arms embargo against Iran will be lifted and restrictions on its nuclear activity will only be “temporary” in a deal that falls “within the redlines” laid out by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Iran’s state-controlled media. As world powers work to secure a final deal, Iranian sources are indicating that the United States has caved on most major issues, including the timing of sanctions relief, the length of the deal, and arms sales to Tehran. Initially, U.S officials had...