Free Republic

After 26 years in Israel, I look more Israeli than Iranian, but even though I left Iran, the country is still part of me," Saidian told AFP. Saidian, who was wearing two pins on her lapel -- an Israeli flag and an Iranian one from before the 1979 Islamic revolution -- cries openly when talking about her native country, which she said she misses every day. If there were to be a football match between Israel and Iran, Saidian said she was not sure which side she would support. "We're like children with divorced parents: you love your mother and...

The claim that an uprising in Iran can be "ignited" through external action sounds dramatic, but it is equally misleading. An uprising is not an event that can be manufactured from the outside, certainly not at the push of a button. Anyone familiar with how intelligence organizations operate knows that uprisings are not created but identified, amplified and at times guided... The first stage is diagnosis: identifying points of frustration, feelings of humiliation, loss of meaning and the gap between the official narrative and reality. This is a quiet, almost invisible stage, but a critical one. Without a precise understanding...

An Iranian ballistic missile strike on a joint US-UK military base in the Chagos Islands has been condemned as 'reckless' by Britain's defence chiefs. Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles targeting Diego Garcia in what is thought to be the first strike ever made against the base.

The Israeli killing of Ali Larijani marks another blow to the Islamic Republic’s capacity for coordination, weakening an already fragmented system and raising the risk of miscalculation under pressure. Iran confirmed on Tuesday that Larijani—Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and one of the regime’s central security coordinators— was killed in a morning strike on Tehran. The strike inevitably recalls the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020: another precise removal of a figure who linked diplomacy, intelligence and military power. Soleimani’s death did more than eliminate a commander. It weakened the regime’s ability to calibrate risk. Radical in purpose,...

An Israeli official, who did not want to be named, told Iran International that Israeli drones targeted Basij and police patrols that were planning to approach the venues of the Syrian [celebration] on [Wednesday night.] [The Basij were turned back.] He called this action "unprecedented" and added: "For the first time, the people of Iran received active support that paralyzed the repression apparatus and practically provided an air umbrella for the population." [The Syrian or the Chaharbansuri] is one of the ancient rituals of Iran [and has] turned from a celebration to a scene of anger and explosion and confrontation...

Iranian regime loyalists displayed a taped-together cardboard cutout of their new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured in recent strikes and has not been seen since his elevation. The makeshift stand-in appeared at a pro-regime rally in Tehran, where organizers brought the life-size cutout of Khamenei onto the stage, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal. Regime loyalists hailed and swore allegiance to the cutout, which appeared crudely assembled and held together by strips of tape, Segal reported. Khamenei has not appeared in public or issued a statement since being selected as Iran’s new supreme leader on Sunday following...

Mossad operatives hacked into Tehran's traffic camera network to spy on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his bodyguards and other top Iranian officials for years Israel gained access to almost all the city's cameras, and tracked the movements of key bodyguards. Images were said to be transmitted back to Tel Aviv and southern Israel, allowing Mossad to develop intimate knowledge on the guards' addresses, work schedules, and who they were assigned to protect. One camera angle proved especially helpful and allowed agents to track where bodyguards parked their personal cars when arriving at the Supreme Leader's compound on Pasteur Street in the...

Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and monitoring bodyguards ahead of the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

No doubt there is much more to the story, but this is awesome: Years before the air strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli intelligence had been quietly mapping the daily rhythms of Tehran. According to reporting by the Financial Times, nearly all of the Iranian capital’s traffic cameras had been hacked years earlier, their footage encrypted and transmitted to Israeli servers. One camera angle near Pasteur Street, close to Khamenei’s compound, allowed analysts to observe the routines of bodyguards and drivers: where they parked, when they arrived and whom they escorted. That data was fed into complex algorithms that...

According to reporting by the Financial Times, nearly all of the Iranian capital’s traffic cameras had been hacked years earlier, their footage encrypted and transmitted to Israeli servers.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a polarizing hardliner who became the face of Tehran’s nuclear defiance and incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric — was reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes during Saturday’s strikes inside Iran. A report by the Israeli media outlet Ma’ariv stated that Ahmadinejad was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a targeted strike on his home. Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s sixth president from 2005 to 2013, rising from relative obscurity as mayor of Tehran to defeat establishment figure Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a surprise 2005 runoff. Critics at home and abroad described him as a...

People in Iran have prepared for attacks. "It's war again. We don't know what to do," a Tehran resident told TT. The Iranian population has been preparing for a possible war for weeks. Many have stockpiled water and bought tens of kilos of dry goods and other necessities. Freezers have been emptied in anticipation of a power outage, and on Saturday many families kept their children at home, even though it is a school day in Iran. "We hope for victory," says a Tehran resident. For many Iranians, however, victory is about overthrowing the regime, rather than Iran winning militarily...

The IDF launched a surprise attack on Iran on Saturday morning, with Iranian state media reporting explosions have been heard in Tehran.

The UK has temporarily withdrawn staff from its embassy in Tehran, as the threat of US strikes against Iran prompts warnings from a number of countries to their citizens in the Middle East. The UK Foreign Office said it was a "precautionary measure" and that its embassy in Iran's capital continued to operate remotely. Meanwhile, the US embassy in Israel told some non-emergency staff and their families on Friday that they could leave the country. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee advised staff who wished to leave to "do so TODAY", the New York Times reported. It comes a day...

Iran’s leadership is edging toward a war scenario not because diplomacy is necessarily collapsing, but because confrontation is increasingly seen as the least damaging option for a ruling system under intense internal and external pressure

I've been working hard this week trying to keep abreast of national and international events, and I’ve come to the conclusion that much of what is most important to know remains as yet murky and unverifiable. International DevelopmentsSome things are clear. The decades-long oppression of the people of Cuba is coming to an end within days. The country is woefully short of energy sources -- in significant part because Maduro is out and Venezuela is no longer providing it. The country is now barely existing in blackout conditions. President Trump has announced that major tariffs will be imposed on any...

Five people were killed, and 14 were reportedly injured in two blasts that rocked Iran’s port city of Bandar Abbas and Ahvaz.Further explosions were reported in Karaj, and the Parand neighborhood of Tehran.Five people were killed, and 14 were reportedly injured in two blasts that rocked Iran’s port city of Bandar Abbas and Ahvaz.Further explosions were reported in Karaj, and the Parand neighborhood of Tehran.According to a Reuters report citing local officials, one person was killed and 14 were injured in the Bandar Abbas blast. An additional five people were confirmed dead from blasts in Ahvaz, Iran International reported.According to...

ranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been transferred to an underground bunker in Iran after senior officials in the country’s security forces assessed that concerns are growing over a possible American strike, Iran International reported Saturday. Khamenei's son, Masoud, has assumed governing authority. Meanwhile, Iran Times, a newspaper identified with the IRGC, quoted the Iranian Defense Ministry spokesperson as saying that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities have become more effective, and are quantitatively and qualitatively superior compared to what they were during Operation Rising Lion in June 2025. At the same time, levels of preparedness and tension ahead of...

Britain evacuated its ambassador and all consular staff from Tehran on Wednesday, closing its embassy temporarily amid escalating security concerns as Iran's government confronts what officials describe as the worst domestic unrest in the Islamic Republic's history.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted a video message on X on Monday addressed to protesters in Iran, saying they deserve a better future and that the free world stands with them. ​“The Iranian people have a glorious past, and they can have an even more glorious future. That future depends on every one of you." "So to all the brave men and women now rising up across your country, all the nations of the free world stand with you in your just struggle. Change is possible; there will be a better Middle East,” Bennett said.