Free Republic

<p>The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate itself from the conflict.</p> <p>The State Department said it had notified Congress on Friday that it would not spend some $230 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would instead shift that money to other areas.</p>

Kurdish groups who oppose the Iranian regime have recently been involved in a number of clashes with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This uptick in political activity and also armed conflict in western Iran, has led to a variety of statements. We have collected them in one place, two of them are exclusive to The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis. Mustafa Hijri Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan On August 15 Mustafa Hijri, the General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), gave an interview that appeared on Kurdistan 24. We received a version of...

The protection of Palestinian civilians could be improved by the deployment of U.N.-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers, a beefed-up U.N. civilian presence or expanded U.N. assistance, Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a report on Friday. The United Nations General Assembly requested the report in a resolution adopted in June that condemned Israel for excessive force against Palestinian civilians and denounced the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas, but did not mention Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. The resolution asked for proposals to ensure “the safety, protection and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under...

The spasm of Hamas-provoked violence that gripped the Gaza Strip and parts of southern Israel last week has temporarily halted for the time being. According to credible reports, Israel informed Cairo that it would begin targeting Hamas leaders and commanders if Hamas failed to rein in its assorted thugs and gangsters. Hamas heeded the call, and for good reason. Over the years, Israel’s various security branches have developed a penchant for liquidating dangerous enemies who seek to inflict harm on the Jewish State. Hamas is keenly aware of this fact having recently lost two of its operatives – Mohammad Zawari and Fadi...

ran, Aug. 14, 2018 – In yet another attempt to preserve the faltering clerical regime, Hassan Rouhani, acting on orders from the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, signed the Caspian Sea Treaty, which is against the Iranian nation’s interests. Undermining the Iranian nation’s national interests, including one trillion dollars in damages from the unpatriotic war with Iraq, the destruction of the environment, the drying up of the nation’s water reserves, the plunder of the Iranian people’s wealth and its squander on exporting terrorism, warmongering, and nuclear and missile programs, are all familiar devices of the mullahs’ regime, which has declared safeguarding...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (JTA) — Brazil’s front-running presidential candidate has announced he will close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia in addition to moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “Is Palestine a country? Palestine is not a country, so there should be no embassy here,” Jair Bolsonaro, a lawmaker from the Social Liberal Party, declared on Tuesday when the National Congress reopened after a three-week recess. “You do not negotiate with terrorists,” he added.

The IDF has uncovered another Hamas network posing as attractive young women on social networks in order to honeypot soldiers, this time on Instagram, in order to access as much information and intelligence on the army that they can. “This is a network in which the culture of sharing is paramount and where everything revolves around pictures and ‘see me,’” said Lt.-Col. A, the head of information security policies at the IDF’s Information Security Department. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. According to him, “Popularity and the need to follow back increases the risk” of soldiers...

Qatar pledges to make direct investment in Turkey, currently hit by currency crisis amid a diplomatic stand-off with US.

In the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei makes all the key decisions and takes a public stance on all vital and strategic issues regarding Iran. He has the last word. He makes his public views known either in Friday Prayer sermons or in meetings with government officials. Last week, Khamenei made two public speeches and talked about the explosive state of the country. Not a day goes by that Iran’s officials and parliament members don’t talk about their concerns over the unstable state of the society and their fear of protests. Nonetheless, Khamenei tried to whitewash his concerns saying...

Map of the planned Turkish Stream (Wikipedia). Russia’s Gazprom has begun constructing the first stage of the Turkish Stream pipeline that will run gas from southern Russia across the Black Sea to Turkey, Reuters reported on Sunday.Switzerland’s Allseas Group S.A has begun laying pipes on the Russian shore of Black Sea. The pipeline will when completed by the end of 2019 allow the state-owned Gazprom company to send gas direct to southern Europe through the Turkish Stream while bypassing Ukraine.The Turkish Stream intergovernmental agreement was signed in October 2016 after having been halted for almost a year following the shootdown...

Kurdish groups in Iran have been increasing their activities over the summer months of 2018. An uptick in clashes, particularly with the IRGC, has been documented from published reports by the Iranian regime as well as the groups. This includes the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) and Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK). On August 11 the IRGC claimed to have killed 11 “terrorists” or “militants” in Oshnavieh. In addition the PDKI claimed to have killed a dozen of the IRGC. And in Baneh a report indicated the PAK had clashed with Iranian regime forces,...

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier launched strong attack on Trump for his tariffs and sanctions. He told Bild am Sonntag newspaper that “this trade war is slowing down and destroying economic growth – and it creates new uncertainties.” Meanwhile, the agreement between the EU and US “can only be first step”. Altmaier emphasized “Our goal is a global trade order with lower tariffs, less protectionism and open markets.” Regarding US sanctions on Iran, Altmaier also pledged the Germany and EU will continue to support companies doing business with Iran. He warned that “we won’t let Washington dictate us with whom...

Unlike the prior administration who was more than willing to give away America’s wealth and power, President Trump understands US economic power. And he is using the wealth and power of the United States to the country’s full advantage. President Trump knows that since the US is holding all of the aces it is time to use them and really start winning. The US economy is the world’s largest America’s economy is bigger than the combined economies of the rest of the G7. Our total annual output which will exceed $20 Trillion this year, is almost 25% of the world’s...

The Democrats Don’t Have a Foreign Policy, They Have A Trump Policy Not just treasonous, stupid. May 10, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. Quick, what’s the Dem position on Syria? What about China? Don’t bother. There was once a time when Democrats could discuss Syria, North Korea, the South China Sea, economic tensions in the European Union and the future of Africa. But that was before Trump. Democrats don’t have a foreign policy anymore. They have a Trump...

One of the instruments that the enemies use is creating discord among us. I insist that we stress and place great emphasis on this matter. Brothers, sisters, Muslims in the world of Islam, if this call reaches your ears, you should know that the day when the words “Sunni” and “Shia” appeared in the American discourse, we became concerned. Every insightful person became concerned. What does America have to do with Sunni and Shia? What does such and such a Jewish Zionist politician in America – who has done nothing except for showing malevolence against Islam and Muslims – have...

The Iranian diplomat arrested in Germany for being the mastermind behind the attempted terror bombing of the Free Iran Gathering 2018 in Paris, France in June, has been fingered for running a spy network throughout Europe to ‘target and eliminate’ Iranian opposition groups on the Continent. Intelligence reports and opposition groups are disclosing how the Iranian regime is behind a wide-scale spy network throughout Europe aiming to obtain technology to advance its ballistic missile program, weaken and disrupt the measures of opposition groups and ultimately carry out targeted assassinations.

A top Iranian official has admitted for the first time that Iran knowingly helped al-Qaeda terrorists — including some of the 9/11 attackers — travel secretly through the Middle East. “Their movements [through Iran] were under the complete supervision of the Iranian intelligence,” Mohammad-Javad Larijani said in a recently surfaced interview. That was one of the main accusations leveled against Iran in the U.S. government’s 9/11 Commission Report, which named the nation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Larijani, the secretary of the Iranian judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights and a former diplomat, is a prominent member of the...

"Elements of the U.S. military are clearly aware that much of what the U.S. is doing in Yemen is aiding AQAP and there is much angst about that," said Michael Horton, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. analysis group that tracks terrorism. "However, supporting the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against what the U.S. views as Iranian expansionism takes priority over battling AQAP and even stabilizing Yemen," Horton said.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Iran of an act of "direct military aggression" by supplying missiles to rebels in Yemen. This "may be considered an act of war", state media quoted the prince as telling UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in a telephone conversation. On Saturday, a ballistic missile was intercepted near the Saudi capital. Iran has denied arming the Houthi movement, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Saudi Arabia's "wars of aggression" and "regional bullying" were threatening the Middle East.

Last September President Obama cited his drone program in Yemen as a successful model of US anti-terrorism strategy. He said that he would employ the Yemen model in his effort to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But just a week ago, the government in Yemen fell to a Shite militia movement thought to be friendly to Iran. The US embassy in Yemen's capitol was forced to evacuate personnel and shut down operations. If Yemen is any kind of model, it is a model of how badly US interventionism has failed. In 2011 the US turned against...