Free Republic

Russia has been condemned for rolling out the red carpet in Moscow for senior leaders of Hamas and Iran — which one alarmed expert called proof President Vladimir Putin is forming a new “axis of terror against the West.” Russian Foreign Ministry officials met with Hamas leaders Bassem Naeem and Mousa Abu Marzouk in Moscow on Thursday, just weeks after their terror group stormed Israel and slaughtered at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians. The terrorist leaders posed with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Putin’s special envoy in the Middle East — who also met Thursday with Iran’s Deputy Foreign...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time in eight years, Russian troops have ravaged Ukraine’s cities, raped its women, and stolen its children. Russian missiles and Iranian drones strike Ukrainian cities daily, often hitting civilian targets. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim. For Americans who believe in respect for national borders, the primacy of national sovereignty, and the right to self-defense, support for Ukraine is natural. Ukrainians are not asking for, nor do they want, US troops to help them fight Russia. All they ask for is the resources required to give them a fighting chance. Meanwhile,...

Iraqi Kurd Editor of Pro-Israel Magazine Missing - Abdel Hamid Zebari (AFP)   Mawlud Afand, the editor-in-chief of the Israel-Kurd Institute's magazine, has been missing since June 8, said Diyari Mohammed, a correspondent for the magazine in Sulaimaniyah, in the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Afand's colleagues have raised the possibility he was kidnapped by Iranian intelligence.

The Iranian government, through its embassy in Ottawa and various friendly or affiliated organizations, is aggressively reaching out to the Iranian diaspora in Canada, as well as to other potentially sympathetic Muslims in the country. This July it is funding an “Iranian Students Convention” at the large and well-appointed NAV Centre in Cornwall, Ontario. According to the conference website, guests must be students and members of a “cultural community” or they will not be permitted to attend. Attendees will have their accommodation and meals paid for, as well as a portion of transportation costs. -excerpt- According to the Department of...

The West worries too much about the prospect of Iran going nuclear. If it did get the bomb, the Middle East would probably become a more stable region. So says Kenneth Waltz, a veteran scholar, in an essay in one of America's most influential magazines. "Why Iran Should get the Bomb," says the headline in Foreign Affairs, the house organ of the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York think tank. "Nuclear Balancing Would Mean Stability." The author is a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. His contrarian essay coincides with yet another unsuccessful...

Syria faces a Friday deadline to sign an Arab deal allowing monitors into the country or incur sanctions over its crackdown on protests including halting flights, curbing trade and stopping deals with the central bank. Arab foreign ministers warned in Cairo that unless Syria agreed to let the monitors in to assess progress of an Arab League plan to end eight months of bloodshed, officials would consider imposing sanctions on Saturday. Under a November 2 Arab League initiative, Syria agreed to withdraw troops from urban centers, release political prisoners, start a dialogue with the opposition and allow monitors and international...

The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to release a report about Iran’s nuclear program this week. Many nuclear experts and diplomats expect the worst. Israel is getting sketchy, and rumored plans of military operations against the Shiite state are increasing—operations vehemently opposed by Russia. Iran’s recent foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador on U.S. soil exemplifies Iranian defiance against the United States and our ally Saudi Arabia. Their continued influence in Iraq sparks grave concerns among many Iraqi citizens. The Arab Spring uprisings induced by Iranian proxies haunts many Middle Eastern nations. The list of reasons to engage...

<p>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A Revolutionary Guard commander killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot west of Tehran was a key figure in Iran's missile program, the elite military force said in a statement Sunday.</p> <p>Gen. Hasan Moghaddam was killed together with 16 other Guard members Saturday at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. The Guard said the accidental explosion occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.</p>

The potential for war with Iran is being hotly debated, in light of the new report about that country’s alleged nuclear arsenal. “The regime in Iran poses a significant threat to regional and global peace,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told reporters, responding to the release of the International Atomic Energy Agency report. The report, released Wednesday, laid out the most details yet of Iran’s alleged effort to build a nuclear arsenal. But there has been some questioning the sources of that report. And now, some lawmakers in the U.S. are suggesting that Iran might have some ideas on what...

Liam Fox's unofficial adviser Adam Werritty was warned by MI6 that his interventions in Iranian politics risked jeopardising British diplomacy in the Middle East. Senior Whitehall officials told Mr Werritty to rein in his political activities which included visits to the Iranian capital Tehran and regular contact with dissident groups who wanted regime change. Dr Fox, who resigned as Defence Secretary ten days ago over his contacts with Mr Werritty, has been accused of using his best man and former flatmate to run a separate foreign policy. But it is understood that Mr Werritty's attempts to draw MI6 into his...

The Kuwaiti emir made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Kuwait City on Wednesday. "We are assured of the goodwill and brotherly goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran and attach high significance to relations with Iran," the Kuwaiti emir stated. Not only the Kuwaiti people but also the people in other member states of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council have always been seeking good relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kuwaiti leader added. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Kuwaiti emir said that consultation is a good way to help find...

WADI KHALED, Lebanon – Using horses and mules to carry their possessions, Syrians crossed a shallow river Monday to reach safety in Lebanon with tales of a "catastrophic" scene back home: sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

Three Iranian ministers have been dismissed and their departments dismantled in a government restructuring that cuts the number of ministries from 21 to 17, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has announced. Ahmadinejad announced the sackings of the country's ministers of oil, social welfare, and industry and mining, following a recent law passed by parliament which requires him to shrink the country's number of ministries, the ISNA news agency reported on Saturday. While a change was expected, the sudden dismissal comes as a surprise, as all three were considered staunch supporters of Ahmedinejad, and because Iran's parliament is still discussing an earlier...

...a push for aggressive action wasn’t necessarily the State Department's position at the end of the day. Multiple sources said that, when the Syria discussions reached the deputies or principals level, State was often viewed as taking a cautious line, not wanting to give U.S. critics ammunition to claim the protests were driven by the West." So, with hundreds being mowed down by the Assad regime, the U.S. had to act slowly lest "U.S. critics" attribute the demonstrations to us. What "critics" would those be? Officials of the murderous Assad regime? Iranian ayatollahs? The Administration's total misunderstanding of the situation...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaces Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as chief of staff. Hard-liners mistrusted Mashaei for his unorthodox views about religion... amid rising calls for political change throughout the Middle East. Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, was not only his top advisor, but also an in-law and comrade during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. He will retain his lesser posts. Mashaei's unorthodox views about religion, including the role of the clergy and the preeminence of ancient Iranian cultural values over Islam, earned him the mistrust of hard-liners in the Iranian establishment but also won Ahmadinejad no friends among a...

"We went down in solidarity with them... I saw the invitation on the Internet. Security forces were beating the girls because they were holding up photos and they were refusing to take them down ... so I came to help them out of the hands of the security, and they took me with them." Badawie, arrested along with 33 others, was hauled into a bus and driven to a detention facility, where she shared a cell with 10 other demonstrators... "We tried to reach a conclusion from the statements carried on state television," she said. "We took the news and...

It's a pretty good bet that, as he sits in his fortified compound, Western airstrikes targeting his military, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi rues the day he heeded US pressures and gave up his nuclear weapons program. And, more than a bet, it's now a matter of record that Iranian leaders interpret Colonel Qaddafi's plight as a lesson in why not to compromise with the US and other international powers on nuclear development. Their assumption is that, were Qaddafi still in possession of his nuclear and other WMD programs, the West would have thought twice before it attacked. What that lesson...

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi capital was virtually locked down Thursday night as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued an indefinite curfew for cars and even bicycles and warned citizens to stay away from Friday's planned "Day of Rage" protests. Organizers had hoped the nationwide event would inject a fresh concept into the exercise of Iraq's fledgling democracy: peaceful expression of discontent. Instead, the lead-up to the big day - when protesters plan to demand a better government, not a new one - has been defined by anxiety and the increasingly familiar features of Maliki's bare-knuckle governing style. On Tuesday night, security...

Iran opens airspace to China warplanes Chinese fighter jets, file photo The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly opened its airspace to Chinese warplanes taking part in joint military maneuvers with Turkey. Ankara and Beijing conducted the drills in Turkey's Central Anatolia region last month. The war games, codenamed the Anatolian Eagle, were the first involving Turkey and China. Turkey had previously carried out Anatolian Eagle maneuvers with the US and other NATO members as well as Israel. Turkish F-16, Chinese Su-27 and Mig-29 fighter jets took part in mock dogfights during the drills. The maneuvers come ahead of a...

Iran's nuclear programme is the most serious threat faced by Jews since the Nazi holocaust, Israel's defence minister has said. Shaul Mofaz said: "Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. It must do everything necessary on a diplomatic level in order to stop its nuclear activity." He added: "Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat." Iran insists that its nuclear programme is aimed solely at producing energy, and that it has no ambitions to acquire an atomic arsenal. But calls by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for Israel to be "wiped...