Free Republic

Saudi Arabia has agreed a deal with the Vatican to build churches for Christian worshippers in the Arab country, it is claimed by Middle Eastern media. If confirmed, the supposed agreement between Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa of the Muslim World League would mark a historic first in Saudi history. The cardinal has visited Saudi Arabia this year and met the royal family, urging the Muslim country to treat its citizens equally.

The shadow war between Israel and Iran in Syria escalated sharply on Monday after suspected Israeli strikes killed 26 Iranian and Assad regime fighters, according to monitors. One strike tore through a military base dug into a mountain near the central city of Hama on Sunday night, causing an explosion so large it registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake. A second strike targeted an airbase near the northern city of Aleppo. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has carried out a number of strikes as it tries to prevent Iran...

The journalists died when a bomber disguised as a TV cameraman detonated a second bomb at the site of an earlier explosion. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State. The first blast happened at around at 8 a.m. local time in the Shashdarak area of the city, where the US embassy and Afghan government buildings are located, prompting journalists to rush to the scene. The second explosion came as the attacker, posing as a cameraman, detonated explosives as journalists huddled around the scene, Kabul City Police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told CNN. In a statement issued via the social media app...

To be able to reach a peaceful solution, the forced migration of Jews from Arab countries must be acknowledged as one of the tragedies of this long and painful conflict. One of the major recognized causes of the current wave of antisemitism in Europe and other places is Palestinian propaganda. This sweeping brainwashing effort has succeeded in producing an anti-Jewish climate in many parts of the world. One of the ways to combat this basic source of lies is to reveal the truth about the banishment of the Jews from Arab countries. The world has mainly heard about the injustice...

WHISKY is back on the tables in Mosul, one of Iraq’s biggest cities. Until last year, boozing was punishable with 80 lashes...Families queue at restaurants on the banks of the Tigris. There is not a niqab, or face-veil, in sight....Now Iraq, home to nearly 40m people, is righting itself... About 45,000 Sunnis mustered alongside the Shia-led Hashd al-Shaabi, or “popular mobilisation units”. And millions of Sunnis fled the would-be caliphate to seek refuge in Kurdish and Shia cities. Religious minorities feel safer, too. Over 70% of the 100,000 Christians who fled to Kurdistan have returned to their homes on the...

A tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump declaring his support for a U.S. pastor on trial in Turkey has “trample(d) on Turkey’s independent judiciary,” the pro-Turkish government Daily Sabah newspaper said on Wednesday. Evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson, a long-term resident of the western Turkish city of Izmir, was arrested in October 2016 and charged with aiding and abetting the Fethullah Gülen movement, an Islamist movement that Turkey blames for masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016 and labels a terrorist organization. "Pastor Andrew Brunson, a fine gentleman and Christian leader in the United States, is on trial and being persecuted...

If Christians had opened fire on Muslims leaving a mosque, which they would, of course, never do, there would be insistent and ongoing international coverage. But no one will take any particular note of this. It’s just another day in Pakistan. “At least 2 dead, 5 injured in attack on Christian community near church in Quetta,” by Syed Ali Shah, Dawn, April 15, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): At least two members of the Christian community were killed and five others injured in a firing incident near a church in Quetta, DawnNewsTV reported. DIG Quetta Abdur Razzaq Cheema...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomed U.S., British and French forces’ airstrikes on Syria, saying that the operation sent a message to Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. “With the joint operation by U.S., U.K. and France on Saturday, the Syrian regime received the message that its massacres wouldn’t be left unanswered,” Erdogan told his ruling AK Party supporters in an Istanbul meeting. “The innocent Syrian people should have been defended long ago,” Erdogan added.

US President Donald Trump briefly joined Saudi King Salman in a traditional male-only sword dance.....

On Saturday I took my family to have a closer look at Syria. This was on the Golan Heights, from a roadside promontory overlooking the abandoned Syrian town of Quneitra. The border is very green at this time of year, a serene patchwork of orchards and grassland, and it was hard to impress on our kids that hell on earth was visible in the quiet distance. But I wanted them to see it — to know that Syria is a place, not an abstraction; that the agonies of its people are near, not far; that we should not look away....

If one were to pick an emblem of America’s global military might, the B-52 properly might top the list. The strategic bomber’s expansive 185-foot wingspan and 159-foot fuselage, make the “Stratofortress” a universally recognizable symbol of unrivaled aerial firepower. This is especially the case if you are unfortunate enough to be the target of its devastating payload – which can be munitions ranging from unguided or guided bombs, to cruise missiles or nuclear weapons. Reportedly, up to 500 Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria found this out the hard way in February, illustrating that when America wants to send a message, it...

OVERVIEW This article uses publicly available evidence from 2003-2010 to explore the accusation that Bashar al Assad and the Syrian government deliberately supported Al-Qaeda jihadis in Syria so they could carry out attacks in Iraq. As these years were the formative ones for ISIS, then known by a series of different names, the evidence strongly, but not conclusively, points to Syria having helped ISIS form. There is no evidence that Syria intended for the jihadi group to grow into what it has become, but rather that Syria seems to have supported it for short-term, strategic ends. Late last fall, a...

President Donald Trump Monday condemned the alleged chemical attack in Syria saying, “It was atrocious, it was horrible.” During a meeting with his Cabinet on Monday, the president said intelligence assessments are underway and his administration will be making "some major decisions" on Syria over the next 24-48 hours. He later said a decision could be made "later today." When asked about possible U.S. military action, Trump said: "Nothing's off the table." “This is about humanity and it can’t be allowed to happen,” he said. “If it’s the Russians, if it’s Syria, if it's Iran, if it’s all of them...

Iranian leaders are threatening to restart the country's contested nuclear enrichment program in just a matter of days as the Trump administration and European allies scramble to address a range of flaws in the landmark nuclear accord ahead of a May deadline that could see the United States walk away from the accord, according to regional reports and administration insiders. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization disclosed on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has maintained the ability to restart the full-scale enrichment of uranium—the key component in a nuclear weapon that was supposed to be removed from Iran as...

The United States has transported the Armag weapons vault from Turkey’s Incirlik Air base to another facility, YeniSafak reported. According to the source, a 40-ton portable weapons vault was transported to another country via a C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft. There has been no official explanation over the transfer yet.

Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen Has Been a Disaster This month marks three years since the start of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, but that is unlikely to be an occasion for celebration in Riyadh. The war is estimated to have cost the Saudis upwards of $100 billion, eroded the international image of the kingdom and failed to achieve its objectives of “eliminating Iranian influence” from Yemen. At the same time, the people of Yemen have suffered immensely from the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign, which killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, destroyed the country’s infrastructure, and has led to widespread disease and...

RUSH: Trump just had a little meeting in the White House, the media was in for a while, with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman — MSB — is his name. He is a Millennial. He is radically changing the culture of Saudi Arabia, radically. It may not seem much to you if you’re told what he’s doing, but it’s radical. Even going so far as to publicly say so, anyway, pull back from the radical Wahhabi sect of militant Islam. Mohammad Bin Salman has made it clear that he doesn’t want the Saudi Arabia under his...

The Saudi crown prince is making his first visit to Washington to shore up investments and political support from Riyadh's closest Western ally. Ten months after the last face-to-face meeting between Trump and Prince Mohammed bin Salman as deputy Crown Prince in Riyadh, the 71-year-old president and the 32-year-old strongman prince are expected to deepen an already warm and congenial relationship. Several dozen Saudi chief executives have joined to tout investment opportunities in the kingdom, particularly in the areas of technology, entertainment and tourism, a Washington source said. Talks will also include a U.S. bid to build two nuclear reactors...

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms expenditure around the world. The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

Aceh province in Indonesia is considering the introduction of beheading as a punishment for murder. The conservative Muslim province is known for publicly caning gays, adulterers and gamblers and applying Islamic Shariah law. The local government has asked the Acehnese Shariah Law and Human Rights Office to research beheading as a method of execution to punish certain crimes.