Free Republic

June 9, 2020: Despite the financial crises, continuing anti-government protests and growing criticism from government and military leaders, the senior clerics who run Iran believe that there is a good chance the American presidential elections in November will put a more pro-Iran and anti-Israel government in power. While this is a possibility, many Iranians don’t believe the clerics can hang onto power until the end of the year. Poverty is growing in Iran and the government continues to spend lots of money on military operations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. Syria is the costliest foreign adventure. So far this...

The announcement Thursday that the partners of the Leviathan gas reservoir will invest $3.75 billion in its development is a devastating blow to the BDS movement, Eli Groner, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The development of Leviathan, which is scheduled to take about three years, constitutes both the largest energy project and financial investment in Israel in the country's history.

Israel made another discovery off its coast. The newly discovered field, Royee, may hold up to 3.2 Tcf of natural gas according to a statement made by the Israeli partners in the field Ratio and Israel Opportunity who hold respectively 70%, and 10% stakes. The remaining 20% of the field are held by Edison. Royee is located about 150 kilometers offshore Israel close to its maritime borders with Cyprus and Egypt. The field’s size is yet to be confirmed, but current estimates suggest it is the third largest field discovered to date in Israeli waters after the Leviathan discovered by...

On May 3, Moscow criticized Turkey’s plans to explore natural gas deposits around the divided island of Cyprus, under the protection of Turkish naval and air power. Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s chief spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, cautioned Turkey that its actions “may exacerbate the situation on the territory of Cyprus” (Rossiskaya Gazeta, May 4). The Greek Cypriots and Israel are coordinating their plans to develop offshore gas deposits and export the product in partnerships with international companies. One export route under consideration would run via mainland Greece into Europe. The Republic of Cyprus, Greece and, recently, Israel are all involved in...

While the Middle East may have a reputation for instability and occasional violence, there's no denying the vast riches it has to offer patient investors. Just months after the announcement of $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan comes word of oil discoveries in Israel... Israel may finally be able to tell its Middle Eastern neighbors where they can stick their oil — something the United States has wanted to do for years. In one of the most sought-after parts of the world, 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be sitting in the Leviathan project beneath the Mediterranean, according to...

Defense Minister Benny Gantz orders IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi to “step up preparations for the IDF,” his office says, ahead of the potential annexation of portions of the West Bank. “Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, to step up preparations for the IDF ahead of diplomatic efforts on the agenda in the Palestinian arena,” the statement reads. Gantz says he also plans to appoint a point-person to coordinate between the different government bodies involved in the process. “In addition, a joint team will be formed that will...

The warplanes, a mix of at least 14 MiG-29 fighters and Su-24 fighter-bombers, appear to have taken off from a base in Russia sometime in the middle of May and flown to Hmeimeem, Russia’s airbase on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. There they were repainted, their Russian Federation Air Force markings obscured, before flying more than 1,200 miles and landing in eastern Libya, in territories controlled by Russia’s ally, strongman-in-waiting Khalifa Haftar. The deployment, which the Pentagon revealed last week and Moscow denied, is the latest in a series of escalations that have seen all types of weapons — Turkish and Emirati...

Today in history, on May 29, 1453, the sword of Islam conquered Constantinople. Of all Islam's conquests of Christian territory, this was by far the most symbolically significant. Not only was Constantinople a living and direct extension of the old Roman Empire and contemporary capital of the Christian Roman Empire (or Byzantium), but its cyclopean walls had prevented Islam from entering Europe through its eastern doorway for the previous seven centuries, beginning with the First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678). Indeed, as Byzantine historian John Julius Norwich puts it, "[h]ad the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than...

An accused terrorist who allegedly opened fire on United States Navy personnel in Corpus Christi, Texas, was able to secure American citizenship through a little-known immigration loophole, a former intelligence agent states. Adam Alsahli, a 20-year-old naturalized American citizen, has been identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the alleged terrorist who attempted to speed through a gate at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (NASCC) on May 21. The FBI says Alsahli shot at a female sailor who was then able to prevent him from getting onto the NASCC base by raising a vehicle barrier. At that...

A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic researcher has been indicted on one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization after authorities say he told paid FBI informants that he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and wanted to carry out lone wolf attacks in the U.S. The indictment against Muhammad Masood, 28, was announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald.. . . Roughly three dozen Minnesotans — mostly men from the state’s large Somali community — have left since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia or militant groups in Syria, including the Islamic...

The opening shot - exactly one hundred years ago in 1920. Exactly one hundred years ago, in April, 1920, marked the opening shot of the Arab Israeli conflict. It was a pogrom against Jews in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas. The pogrom, also called by some the Nebi Musa riots, took place between Sunday, April 4, and Wednesday, April 7, 1920. It cost the lives of five Jews, and 200 others were injured. The violence was instigated by the British occupation administration and led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who later became Hitler’s ally. The Jaffa riots a...

Earlier this week senior defense officials in Israel announced that after years of Israel’s war-between-war campaign to drive Iran out of Syria, the Islamic Republic was finally withdrawing from the war-torn country. The news came just hours after an airstrike blamed on Israel targeted a research facility in Aleppo in Syria’s north. But the announcement also came as Iran is still regrouping from the targeted killing of Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani in January and as it continues to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a disastrous economic crisis hitting the country... Almost on a weekly occurrence foreign publications...

BERLIN (AP) — German police raided five sites linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as authorities announced Thursday that they were banning activities by its political wing in Germany. The raids, intended to prevent evidence about possible front organizations being destroyed, took place at mosques and community centers in Berlin, Bremen, Muenster, Recklinghausen and Dortmund.

Berlin (AFP) - Germany on Thursday completely banned Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from carrying out activities on its soil, as police raided mosques and venues linked to the group. Like the European Union, Germany had until now only outlawed Hezbollah's military wing while tolerating its political wing. But in a shift immediately welcomed by the United States and Israel, the German interior ministry said it now considered the entire movement a "Shiite terrorist organisation". "Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation deemed responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings worldwide," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany's Bild daily. The interior minister "has banned...

Where have we heard that number before? Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the jihad terror group Hamas, on Thursday boasted that if Israel didn’t come across with more ventilators for “Palestinian” coronavirus victims in Gaza, the jihadis “take them by force.” As if that weren’t enough, Sinwar added: “If ventilators are not brought into [Gaza], we’ll take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis.” Of course, Sinwar wasn’t articulating any new imperative for the jihad group: a new genocide of the Jews has always been a cherished Hamas aspiration. As The Palestinian Delusion explains,...

“Look how empty their streets are and look how crowded this mosque is,” he said, in comments translated by the East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Who is it that has given us security and terrified them? Who is it that has protected us and harmed them? It is Allah!” Less than 48 hours after al-Mutawa’s sermon, Gaza’s deputy health minister announced the first two confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Hamas-ruled territory.

he White House is willing to offer some military assistance to Turkey to assist an insurgency against neighboring Syria, which has received support from Russia and Iran, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday. James Jeffrey, who serves as both the State Department's special representative for Syria and the presidential envoy to the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) told reporters in Turkey's southern border province of Hatay that the Turkish forces "mainly use our equipment, we want to make sure the equipment is ready when they need to use it," according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. "We're willing...

You could not concoct a worse scenario for a pandemic catastrophe than what is unfolding Syria.  Start with a regime that depends on troops sent from Iran, where satellites detect trenches being bulldozed for bodies felled by the plague of COVID-19.  Add the bombing of hospitals by that same regime and secretiveness to the point of punishing doctors who speak out about the coronavirus.  Then consider millions of refugees living in close quarters in camps and others fleeing their chaotic and impoverished homeland into Turkey, whose leader wants to send them into Europe. Snowy Syrian refugee camp near Turkey border last December.(YouTube...

(CNSNews.com) – U.S. forces carried out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed Iraqi militias overnight Thursday following a rocket attack on an Iraqi base that killed two U.S. troops and one British soldier. The Pentagon said the airstrikes targeted facilities of Kata’ib Hezbollah (K.H.). The Qods Force-backed Shi’ite militia has a long history of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. “These strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks against Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces,” it said in a statement, referring to the U.S.-led coalition helping the Iraqis to defeat ISIS. “These weapons storage...

ISTANBUL/ATHENS - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Greek security forces on Wednesday of behaving like Nazis for using force against migrants trying to cross the border from Turkey into the European Union. Tens of thousands of migrants have been attempting to get into EU member Greece since Turkey said on Feb. 28 it would no longer keep them on its territory as part of a 2016 deal with Brussels in return for European aid for the refugees. Greek security forces have used tear gas and water cannon to stop the migrants. Athens has suspended asylum applications for a month and...