Free Republic

I. IntroductionFor the second time in 40 years, a Republican President was forced to clean up the mess left by his Democrat predecessor’s failures in Iran. The first time was when a group of Muslim “college students” overran the U.S. embassy in 1979 and paralyzed the Carter administration for more than a year. The second time was when the Obama administration, in a move reminiscent of British PM Chamberlain’s futile attempt to appease Hitler, sent a plane-load of cash in the middle of the night to Tehran to induce the rogue nation to stand down on its nuclear program. The...

The Turkish and Syrian heads of intelligence met in Moscow on Monday, in the first official contact in years despite AnkaraÂ’s longstanding hostility to President Bashar al-Assad, a senior Turkish official and Syrian news agency SANA said. According to Reuters, both sides have said there have been intelligence contacts but that this is the first explicit acknowledgement of such a senior meeting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan backs rebels who fought to topple Assad during SyriaÂ’s nine-year civil war. ErdoÄŸan described Assad as a terrorist and called for him to be driven from power, which earlier in the war had...

In the immediate aftermath of the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the media were aflame with predictions that World War III was imminent. Instead, it now seems likely that his well-deserved death has opened up untold possibilities for Middle East peace. The general’s abrupt departure from this mortal coil defused the rash brinksmanship of the Iranian leadership, and removed the primary provocateur of so much violence and misery in the Middle East. Soleimani had a special place at the top of the ayatollahs’ theocracy. He and his Quds Force had the specific responsibility to spread Iran’s power...

A video has surfaced of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad laughing about President Trump during Putin's visit to Damascus last week. The video, originally posted by a journalist for the Komsomolskaya Pravda, comes just over a month after multiple NATO nation leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, were recorded seemingly mocking the American president at a NATO summit. In the latest clip, Assad and Putin joked that Trump should follow in the footsteps of Paul the Apostle and visit the Syrian capital of Damascus. "If Trump arrives along this road...

A new video reveals that two missiles struck Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, which crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran, Iran early on January 8. The video appears to be taken from a security camera on the roof of a building near where the plane was struck. The video, which was originally uploaded to YouTube by an Iranian user early Tuesday morning was verified as authentic by a New York Times investigations team. The video shows the plane being struck by the first missile, which appeared to result in a small explosion, followed by the second missile strike about 20...

It was all so strange. Why were democrats so protective of Qasem Soleimani? Why did they side so strongly with Iran over the United States? Why were they emphatic about protecting the pathetic Iran deal which Iran has been violating since day one? Now we know. A few days ago Michael Doran,Senior Director for the Middle East under Bush, sent out a tweet https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1215600795602837505I found this astonishing. Now Lee Smith has fleshed it out. Because the fact is that the Democrats are not pro-terrorist. They’re simply intent on protecting the historic agreement that legalized the nuclear weapons program of a terror state....

At least two Iranian journalists at a state-owned media outlet reportedly resigned from their jobs, with one of them apologizing to viewers for "the 13 years I told you lies." As Tehran continues to grapple with the fallout from protests stemming from a cover-up of its accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner, TV anchor Gelare Jabbari addressed her viewers on an Instagram post that appears to have been deleted. “It was very hard for me to believe that our people have been killed," the post read, according to The Guardian. "Forgive me that I got to know this late. And...

With the death of General Soleimani and Iran's subsequent "saving face" retaliation, many pundits and commentators have expressed fear of an escalation of violence between the U.S. and Iran, something that could even mount into a third world war. Considering that those pushing this narrative also happen to push the narrative that Trump is a fascist dictator, Obama's foreign policy was beyond reproach, and the current impeachment is completely legitimate, it's safe to assume that these critics are mistaken. Trump is unlikely to start a war with Iran; he has no reason to do so, nor does anyone want this...

Mayor Pete, as he likes to be called, who has led the cry that Iran's shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner using a Russian missile is somehow the fault of an American president, Donald J. Trump, is among those who say it was "collateral damage" resulting from Trump trashing the flawed and unworkable Iran nuclear deal and his zapping of terrorist Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Knowing that Democrats obey Rahm Emanuel's famous observation that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, Mayor Pete wasted no time attaching his name to the slander that the 176 innocents aboard...

LONDON — Iran is caught in a wretched economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing. The economy is rapidly shrinking. Iranians are increasingly disgusted. Crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have severed Iran’s access to international markets, decimating the economy, which is now contracting at an alarming 9.5 percent annual rate, the International Monetary Fund estimated. Oil exports were effectively zero in December, according to Oxford Economics, as the sanctions have prevented sales, even though smugglers have transported unknown volumes. The bleak economy appears to be tempering the willingness of Iran to escalate...

France and Russia have a shared desire to safeguard Iran's nuclear deal, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday. Macron said in a statement he had a phone call on Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Leaders of Britain, France and Germany on Sunday called on Iran to return to full compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and refrain from further violence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly suggested during a meeting with Bashar al-Assad last week that the Syrian president invite President Trump to Damascus. In a video of the conversation between Assad and Putin at the Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in Damascus, Assad mentions the Apostle Paul’s conversion to Christianity after a vision at the gate of Damascus, Axios reported. “If Trump arrives along this road, everything will become normal with him too," the Syrian leader said, according to the news outlet.

“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” Kerry told CNBC in 2016. When asked by Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” why he believed this was a worthwhile risk when releasing the money, Kerry attacked the president rather than answer the question. “You know that the president's tweet is a lie,” Kerry told host Margaret Brennan. “And the president tweeted this morning, because I am coming on the show and he knew you'd ask me the question or he'd push you in a...

Let’s not forget that we have friends in Iran too. Yesterday an anti-regime protest erupted in Iran. Today they are gaining momentum as the day goes by, the protests signal that the ‎Iranian people are sick and tired of the regime. Today the protests continue as THOUSANDS of democratic protesters took to the streets of Iran today for the second day of mass protests. There was an AMAZING display at Besheshti University– Protesters REFUSED to step on the US and Israeli flags! This was amazing to see pro American protesters against Iran’s regime, but what happened next is just terrible....

For a few days, the band was back together. Following President Trump’s decision to target Qassem Soleimani, the media’s favorite go-to critics featured members of Barack Obama’s administration who crafted and sold the failed nuclear deal with Iran. John Kerry, Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Wendy Sherman and Leon Panetta gave interviews or popped up on social media to defend their tenure and declare that Trump was a reckless fool for poking the mullahs’ nest. Naturally, the Obama alums were in perfect sync with the dominant media narrative in the four days between the Soleimani strike and Iran’s feeble retaliation. They...

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar 4. Iranians are in the street calling for prosecutions, saying Soleimani is a murderer. Telling leadership of the Iranian government to resign and saying that Trump isn't the problem, that the Iranian government is. To say that these protesters are brave is an understatement 1:54 AM · Jan 12, 2020

Two journalists working for the Iraqi broadcaster Dijlah TV have been shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed. Correspondent Ahmed Abdel Samad and cameraman Safaa Ghali were covering protests in the city on Jan. 10 when unknown gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, killing them both. Video footage posted on Dijlah TV’s website was described as showing Samad slumped in the passenger seat of the vehicle with a bullet wound to the right side of his head. Dijlah TV (or Al-Dijla), headquartered in Jordan, is one of Iraq’s most watched news...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s security forces deployed in large numbers across the capital on Sunday, expecting more protests after its Revolutionary Guard admitted to accidentally shooting down a passenger plane at a time of soaring tensions with the United States. Riot police in black uniforms and helmets massed in Vali-e Asr Square, Tehran University and other landmarks as calls circulated for protests later in the day. Revolutionary Guard members patrolled the city on motorbikes and plainclothes security men were also out in force. People looked down as they walked briskly past the police, hoping not to draw...

Concern mounted Thursday in Iran over the fate of the Islamic republic’s only woman to have won an Olympic medal, who is believed to want to settle in The Netherlands. Kimia Alizadeh clinched a taekwondo bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016, drawing praise from her compatriots including the country’s President Hassan Rouhani and even conservatives in the Islamic Republic. In keeping with Iran’s strict Muslim custom, Alizadeh, then 18, competed wearing a head scarf over her taekwondo uniform and protective gear. There were high hopes she would compete at the Tokyo Olympics later this year and bring home...

More than 6,000 university professors issued a statement following the testimony of the chief of hearts, Haj Qassim Suleimani. More than 6,000 university professors issued a statement following the testimony of Sardar Dale Hajj Qassim Suleimani, according to the Fars News Agency. The text of this statement is as follows: in the name of God "I am al-Mu'minin al-Rijal Sadiqva, our conscience against my fiancé, my judge, and my sincerity," The testimony of the brave Sardar, proud and courageous Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Lieutenant-Colonel Martyr Haj Ghassem Suleimani and his tireless companion,...