Free Republic

Iran’s deesident Vladimir Putin about delivery of the advanced S-300 air defense system -- and the purchase of powerful offensive weapons, including Russia's most sophisticated tank and jet fighters. Russian media and two intelligence officials speaking to Fox News confirm the meeting between Putin and Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, believed to be the architect of the 1983 terror bombing that killed 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service members in Beirut, Lebanon. A United Nations resolution passed on July 20, days after the landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, forbids Iran from making...

Two of the most dangerous apocalyptic Muslim groups-that strongly believe in establishment of a global Islamic state and believe in annihilation of non-Muslim nations-are the Islamic State and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They both share the same fatal ideology and mission with some minor differences. They believe that this is the end of the times for non-Muslims, and that they should prepare the world for the coming of the Imam Mahdi (also known as Muhammad al Mahdi) who would establish Islamic rule around the world and clean up the planet from those who do not...

Stuck in a recession and with no sign of a reprieve in the oil price, Russia could quickly descend into chaos if the money runs out, William Browder, a well-known critic of the Kremlin and chief executive of Hermitage Capital, told CNBC. "I don't think you can underestimate how bad the situation in Russia is right now, you've got oil below any measure where the budget can survive and you've got sanctions from the West. Russia is in what I'd call a real serious economic crisis," he said on Thursday. Speaking to CNBC in Davos where global business and political...

Senior US Security Sources: Syria's Main Missile and Chemical Weapons Facility at Homs Blown up in Mysterious Explosions on March 24. North Koreans Among Tens of Engineers and Technicians Killed in Underground Plant. Factory Manufactured Scud-C and Scud-D, Liquid and Solid Fuels, Chemical Warheads, Oxidizers. Syrians Suspect Israeli Undercover Saboteurs Struck in Reprisal for Syrian Military Intelligence Aid in Terrorist Hit against Galilee Highway on March 12 - Or US Reprisal for Free al Qaeda Transit through Syria. Israeli Air Force Chief Halutz: Odds on Second Front Opening up in North Higher than Contemplated Few Months Back. Continuing Shelling and...

The Iran-backed Shia terrorist group Hezbollah has lost an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 soldiers, more than one-third of its force, while fighting against rebels and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Israeli experts. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, another 5,000 Hezbollah jihadists have been wounded, analysts reportedly said.

Is Russia’s Hidden Hand Somewhere in the Samir Kuntar Assassination? Missile strike on target in Damascus is clear challenge to Moscow, which raises question of whether there was some kind of understanding or coordination in advance. Anshel Pfeffer Dec 22, 2015 10:38 PM read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.693327

Saudi Arabia stews in policy hell: Spengler By David P. Goldman on January 3, 2016 in David P. Goldman, Spengler, China, Middle East, AT Top Writers Last week's mass executions in Saudi Arabia suggest panic at the highest level of the monarchy. The action is without precedent, even by the grim standards of Saudi repression. In 1980 Riyadh killed 63 jihadists who had attacked the Grand Mosque of Mecca, but that was fresh after the event. Most of the 47 prisoners shot and beheaded on Jan. 2 had sat in Saudi jails for a decade. The decision to kill the...

To advance its diplomatic opening to Iran, the administration spied on both law-abiding US citizens and on US lawmakers. It is far from clear why senior Obama administration officials told The Wall Street Journal that under President Barack Obama, the National Security Agency has been aggressively spying not only on Israeli officials but on US citizens and lawmakers who communicate with Israeli officials. Perhaps they were trying to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look like a fool. After all, the article concludes that the NSA intercepts of these communications "revealed one surprise." "Mr. Netanyahu and some of his allies voiced...

Saudi Arabia has announced that it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturday's attack of its embassy in Tehran during protests. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi foreign minister, made the announcement on Sunday as the foreign ministry announced that it would ask the Iranian diplomatic mission to leave the kingdom within 48 hours. The Saudi foreign ministry has also announced that the staff of its diplomatic mission have been evacuated, and are now on their way back to Saudi.

BAGHDAD — Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday and gave all Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the kingdom, as escalating tensions over the execution of an outspoken Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia marked a new low in relations between the two Middle Eastern powers. The surprise move, announced in a televised news conference by Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, followed harsh criticism by Iranian leaders of the Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and the storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by protestors in response. Mr. Jubeir said that the kingdom would not allow...

A series of Iranian officials vowed on Friday to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal. "As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities," the Revolutionary Guards' second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency. "We don't have enough space to store our missiles. All our depots and underground facilities are full," he said in Friday Prayers in Tehran....

Saudi Arabia's mass execution of 47 prisoners — including prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr — triggered unrest across the Middle East on Saturday, particularly in Iran, where protesters stormed and ransacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Photos and video footage posted on Twitter by Iranian journalist Sobhan Hassanvand showed a mob of angry demonstrators smashing windows and setting fire to the Saudi diplomatic outpost in the Iranian capital. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also condemned the executions. "I'm shocked & saddened at Sheikh Nimr's execution by Saudi authorities," he wrote on Twitter. "Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does...

This week, Saudi Arabia announced that it was forming a new "Islamic military alliance" devoted to fighting global terrorism. The plan stemmed from the "keenness of the Muslim world to fight this disease, which affected the Islamic world first, before the international community as a whole," Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman told reporters during a rare news conference.In many ways, this alliance seems designed to calm Western critics who have frequently complained that the Muslim world isn't doing enough to combat terrorism and extremism. However, the details of the planned alliance are more than a little...

Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 'terrorists' in one day including top Shiite cleric triggers wave of protests across Middle East and around the world Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people convicted of 'terrorism' today, including a prominent Shiite cleric behind anti-government protests, according to the interior ministry. Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a 56-year-old cleric was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shiite minority complains of marginalisation. Scores of Shi'ite Muslims marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr...

Cairo (dpa) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday came under blistering criticism from the region's Shiites shortly after it executed a top Shiite cleric known for his activism against the Sunni government. Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 people the Saudi government said it had executed earlier on Saturday after their convictions on terrorism-related charges. Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional Shiite rival, criticized al-Nimr's execution, saying it was politically and religiously motivated. "Instead of focusing on [Islamic State] terrorists threatening the region and the whole world, the Saudis execute a prominent figure like al-Nimr," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jaber Ansari said, referring to...

Saudi Arabia has faced global condemnation after it was revealed on 2 January, that 47 people at prisons around the country, including 56-year-old al Nimr, were executed. Most of the detainees had been captured after a series of attacks by al Qaeda between 2003 and 2006. Mr Nimr, who was a driving force behind the anti-government protests, was found guilty of a number of terrorism-related charges in 2014, including incitement of vandalism and sectarian strife, failing to obey or pledge allegiance to King Abdullah (then monarch of Saudi Arabia), calling for the collapse of the state, and insulting relatives and...

Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to part of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdom’s treatment of its Shiite minority. Protesters broke furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, said a witness who was reached by telephone from Tehran. The protesters also set fire to the room, said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl, because he had been involved in the protest. The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said.

Iranian protesters broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran after launching several Molotov cocktails into the building. The rally in front of the embassy was triggered by Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

The Obama administration's loathing of Benjamin Netanyahu knows no bounds; nor, apparently, does its contempt for Congress: Top Democrats in Congress are brushing off a report that U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between Israeli government officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it is no secret that the U.S. and Israel spy on each other, even though they are allies. "I'm not surprised," he told The Hill. "I kind of think the report is much to do about nothing."Engel, a staunch supporter of Israel, said he met twice...