The Iranian navy boarded and briefly seized a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., the American military said Thursday.
The U.S. military’s Central Command published a black-and-white video showing what appeared to be special forces fast-roping down from a helicopter onto the MT Wila, whose last position appeared to be off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates near the city of Khorfakkan.
Read More
An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause but would not make it public due to “security reasons.”
The multiple, different claims by a self-described group called the “Cheetahs of the Homeland” included language used by several exiled Iranian opposition organizations. They also focused almost entirely on Iran’s nuclear program, viewed by Israel as a danger to its very existence.
Read More
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to seize four tankers sailing toward Venezuela with gasoline supplied by Iran, the latest attempt to disrupt ever-closer trade ties between the two heavily sanctioned anti-American allies.
The civil-forfeiture complaint filed late Wednesday in the District of Columbia federal court alleges that the sale was arranged by a businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Read More
While the establishment media have studiously ignored reporting the story, the social media accounts of Middle East and national security experts have been abuzz with questions and information on the huge explosion or explosions that recently rocked a site believed to house one of Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities – the facilities that Obama and the Iranians claimed do not exist.
Rick Moran writing for our friends at PJ Media reported the explosion happened in the Alborz mountains, just east of Tehran. Satellite photos show the massive extent of the blast. The area of the blast near Iran’s Khojir missile base was identified in 2017 as a nuclear research facility despite Iran’s pledge to reveal all its nuclear infrastructure in the nuclear deal with the West.
Read More
As tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S., the Islamic Republic appears to have constructed a new mock-up of an aircraft carrier off its southern coast for potential live-fire drills.
The faux foe, seen in satellite photographs obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow mouth where 20% of all the world’s oil passes through.
Read More
Iran has continued to increase its stockpiles of enriched uranium and remains in violation of its deal with world powers, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported the finding in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by The Associated Press.
Read More
President Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution Wednesday that would have curbed his ability to direct military action against Iran.
“This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party,” Trump said Wednesday as he signed the veto. “The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands. Congress should not have passed this resolution.”
Read More
China, Russia and Iran are acting in tandem to promote propaganda suggesting coronavirus is an American bioweapon and that the U.S. economy is buckling under the strain of lockdowns, a State Department report shows.
Read More
Oil prices dropped Monday as Saudi Arabia and Russia haggle over whether to reduce crude production amid fears that coronavirus will hamper air travel and potentially wreck the global economy.
Prices fell into the $30s as the Saudis push for a cut in output to prop up prices, while Russia went the other way, and decided to infuse the market with hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil, according to The Washington Post. Moscow is worried that the U.S. will use shale oil to take advantage if Saudi Arabia ease off production.
Read More
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) admitted Tuesday morning that he and several other Democrats did indeed hold a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week, arguing that it would be dangerous NOT to meet clandestinely with Iranian officials.
Read More
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) threw his lot in with his Democrat colleagues Thursday to try to block President Donald Trump from using his war powers authority to handle attacks by Iran without begging for congressional approval first.
Read More
YUMA, Arizona — Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said the U.S. government was well prepared for any threats from Iran because it had prepared months in advance.
Read More
PENTAGON – The Pentagon said Friday that 34 U.S. troops had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries or concussions as a result of Iran’s missile attack on bases in Iraq earlier this month.
Read More
The recent drone attack that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and a Shiite militia leader in Iraq led predictably to a retaliatory strike by Iran. Twenty or so ballistic missiles were launched at bases in Iraq where U.S. troops were housed. Fortunately, no one was killed.
Read More
Rep. Justin Amish (I-MI-03) said President Donald Trump’s claim that Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks on American assets “seems totally made up.”
Read More
The outrage was aired first of all on social media forums — before spilling chaotically on to the streets with Saturday’s mass protests catching Iranian authorities off-guard and exposing how many Iranians hold the country’s embattled regime in disdain.
Read More
The Iranian military apologized Friday for shooting down a commercial airliner bound for Ukraine, and blamed “human error” for launching the missile that took down the airplane, according to Iranian state media.
Read More
The predicted has happened in Iran and more quickly than had been expected. On the evening of the day on which the Iranian authorities managed to bungle the funeral of their late terrorist chief, Qasem Soleimani, at least 50 people were trampled to death in their grief, and the crisis over the supposed escalation of hostilities subsided. (At least, unlike during the funeral of the Iranian theocracy’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the coffin did not fly open, spilling the corpse on the mourners.)
Read More
WASHINGTON – The U.S. placed more sanctions on Iran Friday in response to its missile attack on U.S. military troops in Iraq last week, and it threatened further action to weaken Iran’s economy if Tehran continues to carry out what it considers terrorist actions.
Read More
For the Democrats, the killing of Iranian terrorist General Qassem Soleimani offered a great opportunity to tout the risk of having Donald Trump as commander in chief, and they were, as usual, extremely disciplined in maintaining that narrative.
Read More
Tensions between the United States and Iran seem to be deescalating again, but the countries clearly are still at loggerheads.
Read More
WHITE HOUSE – U.S. President Donald Trump is publicly voicing suspicion that Iran may have accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner.
Read More
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) said she feels “ill” and “stricken with PTSD” in response to the conflict with Iran before she laughed and joked with her peers while a colleague discussed U.S. casualties in Iraq just moments later.
Read More
The Iraqi Consulate General in Detroit held a memorial event for Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the leader of a designated terrorist organization who was killed last week in a U.S. airstrike.
Read More
President Trump made it abundantly clear in his address to the nation Wednesday morning that Iran’s free reign of terror throughout the Middle East was over, but the United States would not be retaliating militarily against the Islamic Republic following their missile strikes on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
Read More
PENTAGON – Iran has fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles into at least two Iraqi air bases that house U.S. troops, the Pentagon says.
Read More
The Democrats have stumbled into yet another beartrap in their unanimous objection to President Trump’s order to kill the world’s leading terrorist, Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. The same misdirected solicitude that caused the Washington Post to describe ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after he was driven to suicide by U.S. special operators, as an “austere cleric” has elevated Soleimani to the status of an Iranian General MacArthur.
Read More
Twitter is refusing to pull down a President Donald Trump’s tweet threatening future strikes against Iran despite calls from an Obama-era official to do something about the president’s account.
Read More
President Donald Trump is threatening to hit Iranian cultural sites if Iran retaliates for last week’s assassination of its top general Qassem Soleimani.
Read More
A former CIA analyst and cyber disinformation researcher said people are sharing satirical content suggesting Democrats are calling for the American flag to be at half-mast for Gen. Qasem Soleimani “like it’s legit.”
Read More
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) will be leading the bid to restrict President Trump’s power in Iran, several days after an airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Read More
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday staunchly defended the drone attack that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, but refused to publicly offer any evidence supporting the American claim that he posed an imminent threat to U.S. forces and officials in the Mideast.
Read More
Does the U.S. armed forces’ killing of Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign wing, and his subordinate, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, outside Baghdad’s airport increase or decrease the chances of war with Iran? Does it mean a continuation of our disastrous endless wars?
Read More
During a live recording on Friday’s Battleground State Report with Michael Patrick Leahy and Doug Kellett – a one-hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of national weekend syndication rollout – with Kellett out of the studio, Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star Report’s all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the show.
Read More
Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was planning “imminent attacks” that could have killed hundreds of Americans prior to being killed in an airstrike near Baghdad’s airport Friday, a senior U.S. official said.
Read More
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) attacked President Donald Trump as a “lawless president” after he ordered an airstrike that took out Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, a designated terrorist organization.
Read More
Iranian-backed paramilitary groups protesting U.S. air strikes in Iraq withdrew from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday after a second day of protests, even as Tehran and Washington traded threats.
Read More
An Iran-backed militia threatened revenge Monday in response to U.S. airstrikes against its positions in Iraq and Syria, which killed at least 25 people.
Read More
WASHINGTON – A senior U.S. official said Thursday Iranian forces may have killed more than 1,000 people in response to protests that were sparked by the government’s sudden and dramatic increase in fuel prices.
Read More
Iranian hackers attempted to hack President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, The New York Times reported Friday afternoon, citing sources who are familiar with the matter but who cannot comment publicly.
Read More
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. is working to find a diplomatic outcome to tensions with Iran, which has been blamed for an attack on Saudi oil facilities, but he warned if diplomacy fails President Donald Trump “will make necessary decisions to achieve our objectives.”
Read More
WASHINGTON – The U.S. is sending additional military forces and air defense equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said Friday night.
Read More
What should President Trump do in response to the surprise attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure?
Read More
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is “substantially” increasing economic sanctions against Iran in the wake of last weekend’s missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields that Washington says were launched by Tehran.
Read More
The U.S. government said Friday that it had a warrant to seize an Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff off the coast of the British overseas territory Gibraltar.
Read More
by Jamie Dettmer British officials are drawing up plans to target Iran with sanctions for its seizing of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait off Hormuz, and it may urge European Union countries to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in 2016 as part of Tehran’s agreement to curb its…
Read More
President Donald Trump said a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian drone Thursday that was threatening the ship and its crew in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump told reporters at a White House event that the drone came within 900 meters of the USS Boxer and ignored “multiple calls…
Read More
The United States needs to keep the pressure on Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn told anchor Charles Payne on Fox News. The interview video feed from “Sunday Morning Futures,” which aired Saturday, is available here. The transcript is available here. Blackburn is a member…
Read More