Free Republic

Regime change in Iran is "unacceptable" and the assassination of the country's Supreme Leader would "open the Pandora's box", the Kremlin has said. In a rare interview with a foreign media organisation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News that Russia would react "very negatively" if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. The comments came as US President Donald Trump said he will decide within two weeks whether America will join Israel's military campaign against Tehran, after earlier speculating on social media about killing the Iranian leader. "The situation is extremely tense and is dangerous not only for the region but...

A year and a half ago I moved my family from California, where I had spent my entire adult life, to Texas. We left for the same reason as hundreds of thousands of other people in recent years: the state that should be paradise on earth had become, thanks to Democrat mismanagement – intentional, some might say – a Third World cesspit where a middle-class lifestyle was affordable only for the wealthy. My wife and I chose Texas for a variety of reasons; we knew it wasn’t paradise either, but it was definitely higher ground. Now I’m beginning to wonder...

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Wednesday that direct U.S. military assistance to Israel could radically destabilise the situation in the Middle East, where an air war between Iran and Israel has raged for six days. In separate comments, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, was quoted as saying that the situation between Iran and Israel was now critical. Ryabkov warned the U.S. against direct military assistance to Israel or even considering such "speculative options," according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

According to a new YouGov poll, conducted June 13 to June 16, a majority of Americans think the United States should not get involved in Israel’s war with Iran, signaling trouble for the midterms if President Trump decides to send troops into the conflict. 50% say they believe Iran is an enemy of the U.S., while only 1% consider Iran an ally.Still, of the 1,512 survey respondents, only 16% support U.S. involvement in the war, with 60% opposed and 24% are not sure. The opposition to U.S. involvement includes 65% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans.Only 23%...

Israel needs a 15-ton ‘bunker buster’ bomb to destroy the last untouched nuclear facility in Iran, but only the US has one. Such a powerful weapon – the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal – is needed because the target, Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, is built some 300 feet inside a mountain near the city of Qom, two hours south of Tehran. The heavyweight explosive is known as a GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator and was designed by Boeing for the United States Air Force. Its huge weight means it can only be delivered with a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber...

President says U.S. knows location of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. President Trump called on Iran to surrender without conditions to bring an end to its dayslong conflict with Israel, saying the U.S. knew the location of the country’s leader but was choosing not to take any action. “He is an easy target, but is safe there—We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” Trump made the comments as the U.S. expanded its military footprint in the region where the war between Israel and Iran entered a fifth day. The president left a...

*** Rival factions of the MAGA movement are now openly feuding in an increasingly nasty civil war, and questioning whether the president will make what they regard as the right move in the Middle East. Trump himself stunningly split with one of his own close advisers on Tuesday, dismissing Congressional testimony from Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard. In March, Gabbard stated that the intelligence community had assessed Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. 'The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that...

Longstanding efforts by the legacy media and the political establishment to downplay the issue of ethnicity in the child rape grooming gang scandal have been overturned by a public inquiry from Baroness Casey of Blackstock, which found a direct tie between Pakistani men and the abuse of mostly young working class white girls. A report from Dame Louise Casey has explicitly linked the grooming gang scourge to Pakistani-heritage men, whose crimes were “institutionally ignored for fear of racism”. The review also called for police in England to improve the collection of ethnicity data in child sexual exploitation cases. Unveiling the...

Tehran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press U.S. President Donald Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire with Iran in return for Tehran's flexibility in nuclear negotiations, two Iranian and three regional sources told Reuters on Monday. Gulf leaders and their top diplomats worked the phones all weekend, speaking to each other, to Tehran, Washington and beyond in an effort to avoid a widening of the conflict as longstanding enemies Israel and Iran intensified their attacks in their biggest ever confrontation. Iran is willing to be flexible in the nuclear talks...

DUBAI—Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said. In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials they would be open to return to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. They also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained. But with Israeli warplanes able to fly freely...

The leader of the British government on Sunday announced plans to put authorities with the nation’s top organized crime agency on the so called “grooming gangs scandal,” in which more than 1,000 children were sexually abused over a 16-year period, according to multiple media reports. An inquiry in 2014 found that 1,400 children, primarily white girls from working-class families, in Northern England were subjected to sexual exploitation between 1997 and 2013, Reuters reported. In the inquiry, officials reported that most of the perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage.

Young woman who recently moved to Paris breaks down in tears, admitting she’s too afraid to explore the city after being repeatedly harassed. This is the consequence of unchecked mass migration from cultures that clash with Western values—where women are treated as objects.

President Trump rejected rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson’s criticism that he is abandoning America First principles with his support for Israel amid its military campaign against Iran. Carlson, an ardent Trump ally, fumed at Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran last week, dubbing the US “complicit in the act of war” and arguing that, “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.” Trump said he wasn’t familiar with Carlson’s critique but contended that, as a pioneer of the modern America First movement, he’s the final arbiter of what it means...

A new Pew Research Center report shows that although Christianity continues to be the world’s largest religious group, its share of the rising global population has fallen over the last decade, mainly due to people walking away from the faith. The report, based on an analysis of 2,700 censuses and surveys, shows that the global population of Christians grew by 121.6 million people from 2010 to 2020, reaching some 2.3 billion people. As a share of the global population, estimated to be about 7.8 billion in 2020, Christians fell by 1.8 percentage points to 28.8%. The global population of Muslims,...

Despite rising tensions following Israel’s major military strike, Iran has not yet officially cancelled the upcoming round of nuclear talks with the United States, originally scheduled for June 15 in Muscat. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told NourNews that no final decision had been made on whether the dialogue would proceed as planned. “It is still unclear what decision we will make on 15 June on this matter,” Baghaei said, adding uncertainty to an already strained diplomatic situation. His remarks follow earlier statements in which Baghaei had cast serious doubt on the value of continued negotiations. After Israel’s...

... Iranian nuclear proliferation is not just an existential threat to Israel, but also an American problem. We've let it go on for too long.

Russia said on Friday that Israeli strikes on Iran were unprovoked and in breach of the United Nations charter, accusing Israel of wrecking diplomatic efforts to strike a deal to allay Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme. -snip- "Russia is concerned and condemns the sharp escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media. President Vladimir Putin was getting real-time reports on the situation from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service and the foreign and defence ministries, Peskov said. In a detailed statement drawn up at Putin's behest, the Foreign Ministry fiercely condemned Israel and blamed...

Iran is set to OFFICIALLY declare war against Israel, per state media

Israel is prepared to attack Iran in the coming days if Tehran rejects a U.S. proposal that would place tough limits on its nuclear program, Trump administration and Israeli officials said. A senior Israeli official warned that a strike could come as soon as Sunday unless Iran agrees to halt production of fissile material that can be used to make an atomic bomb. Israel’s high-stakes brinkmanship is aimed at pressuring Iran to give up its ability to enrich uranium, the senior official said. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is to hold a sixth round of talks with his Iranian counterparts...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear bomb, “one way or the other.”Israel has long envisioned a military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. Many in the Middle East, the United States and Europe are now wondering whether that moment has arrived.On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that officials in the United States and Europe believe that Israel seems to be gearing up for a potential strike, even as the Trump administration is seeking a deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program.An Israeli attack would risk igniting a regional war that could pull...