Free Republic

Iran is using advanced centrifuges banned under the 2015 nuclear deal to enrich uranium faster and well past limits set in the deal. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, unveiled the Islamic country’s newest capabilities in a press conference on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Kamalvandi addressed reporters while standing in front of 20 IR-6 centrifuges and 20 IR-4 centrifuges. "Under current circumstances, the Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of increasing its enriched uranium stockpile as well as its enrichment levels and that is not just limited to 20%," Kamalvandi said. "We are capable inside the...

“Israel’s ominous escalation” (8/28/19) could also be called the Washington Post’s “ominous escalation” with three articles/editorials in three days about Israel’s allegedly egregious responses to Iranian aggression. Of course, the Post calls Israel’s response to weapons buildups on its borders and attempted drone attacks as Israeli “aggression.” What else does one of the smallest countries in the world have to do in its spare time than to poke a hornet’s nest of enemies that have them pretty much surrounded? The Post editorial says that “since July, Israel has quietly expanded its air campaign” against Iran. Might that have anything to...

In events marking 80 years since Nazi invasion of Poland that started the war, genocide of Jews was swallowed up like it never happened. The right-wing nationalist government in Poland can celebrate a great victory. In the long war over the “culture of memory,” an objective it set for itself upon coming to power in 2015, the last bastion was conquered yesterday. After Israel’s recognition last year of the Polish narrative – which emphasizes the suffering of the Polish nation and minimizes its part in causing suffering to another nation – now Germany and the United States have also been...

Die-hard Trump haters continue to maintain that the President of the United States is in thrall to, or maybe being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin. As a corollary, they still push the notion that Russia will corrupt the 2020 presidential election, so that if and when Trump wins, they will deny him legitimacy. The crashing and burning of the Mueller effort to prove this thesis means nothing to the deluded dead-enders. But the stupidity of this charge is refuted by the power play President Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry carried out over the holiday weekend. Via Reuters: “We’re...

More than $4bn has been pulled from UK equity funds since Theresa May announced her decision to step down as Britain’s prime minister as fears mount that the UK is heading for a no-deal Brexit under her successor, Boris Johnson. Investors have withdrawn $4.2bn from UK equity funds since late May, according to EPFR, a data provider. Outflows since the Brexit referendum in 2016 have climbed to $29.7bn. Luke Ellis, chief executive of Man Group, the UK-listed hedge fund manager, said investors had put the UK into the “too hard to think about basket”. Neil Dwane, global strategist at Allianz Global...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday asked Poland’s forgiveness for history’s bloodiest conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, where the first World War II bombs fell 80 years ago. “I bow my head before the victims of the attack on Wielun. I bow my head before the Polish victims of Germany’s tyranny. And I ask forgiveness,” Steinmeier said in both German and Polish. “It is the Germans who committed a crime against humanity in Poland. Anyone who claims it is over, that the national-socialists’ reign of terror over Europe is a marginal event in German history...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the United States should “bow down before the Iranian people” in a speech this week. Rouhani also indicated that he would not meet with President Donald Trump unless there was “repentance” on the part of the United States. “Those who have imposed sanctions on our people, and have carried out economic terrorism—any change in our conduct toward them must start with their repentance,” Rouhani said on Aug. 27, according to a translation from Arabic from the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Imam of Friday Prayer of the Iranian city of Kazeroun was stabbed to death on Wednesday morning, according to Radio Farda. The Imam, Mohammad Khorsand, was stabbed in front of his home after returning from a religious ceremony early Wednesday morning, according to the provincial deputy police commander for social affairs, IRGC Colonel Kavous Mohammadi told the Iranian news agency IRNA. The murderer was identified soon after the murder and was arrested later on Wednesday in Kazeroun. The motive for the killing is still be investigated. Witnesses at the scene told IRNA that the murderer asked for a selfie...

Iran sanctions threaten the lives of young ca... In the battle over sanctions between the United States and Iran, the losers are Iranian cancer patients seeking life-saving drugs. Correspondent Imtiaz Tyab reports from a children's hospital in Tehran where vital drugs are running out

Israel says It Attacked Iranian Targets in Syria By Linda Gradstein August 25, 2019 Israel says it had attacked Iranian targets in Syria to foil an imminent attack by what it called Iranian "killer drones" on Israel. Despite Iranian denials of the attack, the incident has sparked new tensions between Israel and Iran. Israel ordered deployment of its Iron Dome missile to its border with Syria. It is rare that Israel takes responsibility for air strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, although Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of these attacks over the past few years. But this...

The target was reportedly an underground missile production facility and depot for surface-to-surface missiles. The explosions following the strike registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake, but the weapons used did not cause the quake. Over 18 people were killed and another 60 were wounded. The targets were Syrian army bases being used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Shi'ite militias with troops from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Missiles also struck targets in the Al-Malikiyah area, north of the Aleppo’s airport. The underground missile production facility and depot for surface-to-surface missile is funded by Iran and built with the help...

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 Syrian army said 'enemy' rocket attacks struck military bases belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Syrian state TV reported. A report on a Syrian newspaper facebook page attributes the attack to the U.S. and Britain. Media outlets affiliated with the Syrian opposition claim 38 government soldiers were killed in the strike in Hama, with an additional 57 wounded.

The United State has imposed sanctions on a leading Chinese state-owned company for importing Iranian oil. The sanctions placed by the U.S. State Department bar Zhuhai Zhenrong Corporation, one of China’s largest state-run oil companies, from “engaging in foreign exchange, banking or property transactions under US jurisdiction,” London-based Financial Times reported. “As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li,” Secretary of State Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday. While the U.S. sanctions have deterred almost all foreign buyers in Europe...

Debate within the United States over the correct policy for dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran has long been centered on the idea of a dichotomy between engagement and war. Defenders of the status quo continue to suggest that in order to avoid armed conflict, we must turn a blind eye to the theocratic regime’s domestic repression and its propensity for mischief-making beyond Iran’s borders. Starting with that assumption, anyone who recommends a decisive alternative policy is painted as a warmonger.But this is a false narrative, which serves the interests of the Iranian regime and has roots in its...

As the U.S. piles sanction after sanction on Iran, it’s the average person who feels it the most. From a subway performer’s battered leather hat devoid of tips, to a bride-to-be’s empty purse, the lack of cash from the economic pressure facing Iran’s 80 million people can be seen everywhere. Many blame President Donald Trump and his maximalist policy on Iran, which has seen him pull out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levy punishing U.S. sanctions on the country. In recent weeks, Iran has threatened to break out of the deal unless European powers mitigate what...

Israel was seriously dismayed when first reports reached Jerusalem about the telephone conversation between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Tuesday, during which Trump agreed to consider Putin’s plan for “de-escalation zones” in Syria, in place of the American security zones proposal. The Russian president’s plan includes the posting of Iranian military officers as co-monitors for those zones, one of which is to be located on the Syrian-Israeli border. President Trump described the conversation as “Very good.” The four “de-escalation zones” proposed would be situated at: 1. The northwestern province of Idlib up to the Turkish border; 2. The central...

An Iranian propaganda campaign created fake Bernie Sanders supporters online, Facebook disclosed Tuesday. In a press release, the social-media giant said it had removed 652 pages associated with political-influence campaigns traced to Iran, including coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, U.K., and U.S.” The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first alerted Facebook to the influence campaign months ago, wrote in a separate posting on its site that it had traced the campaign—including posts from supposed “American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders”—to Iran through email addresses...

In Iran, the tradition of "Charshanbe Soori" is the festival of fire, which occurs every year on the night before the last Wednesday of the Iranian calendar year. During this festival, which dates back to the 7th century, Iranians traditionally celebrate by lighting bonfires and jumping through the flames. In this ancient custom, they sing: "Sorkhie to az man, zardie man az to," which means: "I give my ill to the fire and receive the redness and warmth from fire." This ancient Persian "Festival of Fire," with its historic and ceremonial roots, is one of the most beloved celebrations among...

Iranians fear an even more painful squeeze on living costs after additional U.S. sanctions take effect on Monday, from businesses struggling to buy raw materials to the sick and elderly unable to afford life-saving medicines. Iran’s clerical rulers have played down the U.S. move, but many ordinary Iranians appear apprehensive. “All the prices are going higher every day ... I cannot imagine what will happen after 13 Aban (Nov. 4). I am scared. I am worried. I am desperate,” said elementary school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran. “I cannot even buy rice to feed my...