Free Republic

Without a coherent vision of the future or an attractive model for others to imitate, without any soft power to speak of, without an economic model that can ensure sustainable growth or keep people out of poverty, the missile-rattling is a terrifying but hollow sound. In the context of a mock election with a predetermined result, Russia's growing military might means better protection for an unaccountable, oppressive regime that doesn't have to keep any of the promises it makes. It's muscle without hope or substance. Putin's fascination with the new toys is understandable. This part of the speech carried a...

The Iraqi military has reportedly warned of an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) resurgence in northern Iraq, noting that the group has already attacked the Kurdish-majority Kirkuk region, home to lucrative oil fields. In an interview with Bas News, Ahmed Askari, a member of the Kurdish-held Kirkuk Provincial Council, dismissed as false the Iraqi military’s allegation of an ISIS re-emergence in northern Iraq, a region primarily controlled by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). However, Kurdistan 24 reports: Islamic State (IS) extremists on Saturday launched an attack on an oil field in Kirkuk Province, killing at least two police officers. A security...

The US threatened unilateral action against Iran after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Tehran’s failure to stop its weapons from reaching Houthi rebels in Yemen. "If Russia is going to continue to cover for Iran then the US and our partners need to take action on our own,” said US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday. “If we’re not going to get action on the council then we have to take our actions.” Ms Haley did not specify what kind of action could be taken. Russia on Monday vetoed the resolution that would have...

“These refugees face the imminent danger of return to Iran, where the already dire situation for religious minorities is steadily deteriorating,” said USCIRF Chairman Daniel MarkThe U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned by recent reports that roughly 100 members of Iranian religious minorities, who sought resettlement to the United States, have been denied asylum and could be returned to Iran where they may face discrimination and persecution. The refugees, most of whom are reported to be Assyrian or Armenian Christians, were seeking refuge in the United States under the Lautenberg Amendment. The Lautenberg Amendment, enacted in 1990,...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Security concerns have caused Iranian officials to delay the implementation of a deal to truck crude oil from Kirkuk to Iran, the head of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce announced on Monday. The delay comes a day after a suicide bomber targeted a Hashd al-Shaabi office in Kirkuk and after ISIS killed two police officers at an oilfield in the province on Saturday. “A large number of ISIS terrorists attacked a post of the oil police force near well 43 in the Khabbaz oilfield, killing two and wounding a third,” a security source told AFP. Iraq...

While Treasury and Justice Departments break free of the Swamp. Early this week, Lebanon’s top army commander, Joseph Aoun, threatened to “confront any Israeli aggression, whatever that costs.” Aoun was referring to Lebanon’s contrived maritime and land border disputes with Israel. Aoun further noted that the Lebanese Armed Forces “would not spare any method” in challenging Israel. With those words, Aoun signed the LAF’s death warrant. The dispute, which was provoked by Hezbollah and Iran, centers on a triangular area of sea of around 330 square miles that falls squarely within Israel’s maritime borders. Hezbollah also opposes the construction of...

Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies, supported by Turkish air strikes, have pushed the Kurdish fighters back from most of Turkey’s border with Afrin since they launched their assault on Jan. 20. “The entrance of the special forces is in preparation for the new battle that is approaching,” Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV broadcaster. Dogan news agency reported that gendarmerie and police special forces teams entered Afrin from two places to the northwest of the region, saying they would take part in urban fighting and holding villages which Turkish forces have seized. Most of the larger towns...

"....what Russia and Iran and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace. I will tell you that. We're there for one reason, we're there to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS and go home. We're not there for any other reason and we've largely accomplished our goal. But what those three counties have done to people over the last short period of time is a disgrace..." President Donald J. Trump joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull 2/23/2018 Speaking late Friday in Washington, President Trump took aim at Syria's government and nations allied with it...

ANF spoke with a YPG fighter in the hills of the Bilika village in the Rajo district about how the invasion attempt by the Turkish army and their accompanying ISIS and Al-Nusra gangs looks from the battle field. Every moment in the Afrin resistance is of historic importance. In the Resistance of the Age that has continued for over a month, the whole truth is still not reflected. It is truly important what the YPG and YPJ figthters who have been clashing on the fronts for weeks experienced. My luck was good and I stayed with a group of YPG...

The United States is still unsure who directed a February 7 attack on US and US-backed forces in Syria, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday, even as he acknowledged accounts that Russian civilian contractors were involved. Reuters has reported that about 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm were either killed or injured in Syria. The US has estimated about 100 pro-Syrian government forces were killed by US strikes to repel the Febuary 7 attack. Russian military officers told the United States during the incident that Moscow was not involved. The Pentagon has declined to comment...

Survivors Describe Attacks on Tents, Home, Farm (Beirut) – Turkish Armed Forces appear to have failed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in three attacks in northwest Syria in late January 2018, Human Rights Watch said today. The attacks killed 26 civilians, including 17 children.On January 20, Turkey opened a military offensive in the Afrin district. The area, which is under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) – a Syrian Kurdish political party – has a civilian population of approximately 323,000, including 125,000 people displaced from elsewhere, according to the United Nations. “It appears that vulnerable...

The UN Security Council is struggling to agree a resolution seeking a ceasefire in Syria and has put back a vote until Saturday. The vote has already been delayed several times since Thursday. Russia wanted changes to the draft that calls for a 30-day calm to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations. Western diplomats have accused Russia, Syria's key ally, of stalling for more time. France said failure to act may spell the of the UN itself...... Commenting on Friday evening, US President Donald Trump pointed the finger of blame firmly at Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran,...

Officials tell the Associated Press that the new US Embassy in Jerusalem will open much earlier than some had predicted. They're working to make the move by May 2018 in celebration of Israel's 70th anniversary.

In a long, rambling February 20, 2018, speech before the UN Security Council, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas fed fables to his audience — and continued to attack Israel’s legitimacy. The speech marked the third time in two months that Abbas has publicly distorted history, and shifted blame for the lack of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And once again, Abbas had a key ally: An uncritical press, seemingly determined to present the Palestinian leader in the best possible light. In his opening remarks before the Security Council, Abbas claimed that Palestinians “are the descendants of the Canaanites...

In a Nov. 25, 2017 article marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, published in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Lebanese journalist Karam Al-Hilu compared the meager accomplishments of the Arab world in the past century with those of the rest of the countries, particularly Israel. He noted that Israel’s supremacy in the areas of science, economy, society and politics is the source of its strength, as well as the source of Arab failure in confronting it. The following are excerpts from his article:[1] “A century after the Balfour Declaration . . . the Arabs have not managed to build...

With perfect timing, and taking advantage of the vacuum left by Obama’s decision not to get involved in Syria, Putin had put Russia back on the geopolitical map. He made a surprise visit to Damascus in December to declare: Mission accomplished. He should have learned from former U.S. President George W. Bush never to say that – because now everything is starting to fall apart for the Russians.

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, one of the country’s leading human rights advocates, to two-and-a-half years in jail for a 2016 Twitter post advocating peace. A former head of Mazlumdar, a prominent Turkish human rights group, Gergerlioglu was sentenced for “disseminating terrorist propaganda”, a charge he denies.The 53-year-old human rights activist was sentenced for a message he posted on Twitter on October 9, 2016, when he downloaded a photograph of a World Peace Day demonstration featuring Kurdish mothers protesting behind two symbolic coffins, one draped in the Turkish flag and the other in a Kurdistan Workers’...

Turkey has raised the possibility of opening a new dialogue with Syria as its supporters threatened to join Kurds in resisting a Turkish invasion in the northwestern district of Afrin. Ankara initially denied Tuesday that a massive convoy of fighters supportive of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad— an ally of both Russia and Iran—entered the Kurd-held enclave and later claimed that Turkish airstrikes turned the incoming forces back. Videos surfaced of pro-Syrian government and Kurdish fighters chanting "one Syria," in celebration of an alliance that Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Wednesday would have "serious consequences" for...

A spokesman for Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union called Turkey to withdraw its forces from Afrin on Wednesday. < Speaking to Deutschlandfunk radio Jürgen Hardt said he could only "urge" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "to end the operation in northern Syria”. Describing Turkey’s actions against YPG in Afrin as “not proportional” Hardt advised Turkey to “focus on securing the Turkish-Syrian border”. The Turkish government is, therefore "well advised to withdraw quickly from this mission now". The federal government had withheld criticism of the Turkish attacks on Afrin for a long time. On Tuesday evening, the Foreign Office called on...

U.S. has provided Kurdistans’ forces with arms, air support and military advisers… regards the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, as key ally against Islamic State IS and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria. // snipp // Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia had stepped in to block Syrian forces in Afrin, where Ankara is seeking to destroy the Kurdish YPG… Erdogan later said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Damascus would face consequences if it struck a deal with the YPG. // snipp // On Sunday, a Kurdish...