The Taliban have issued an ultimatum to Washington after weeks of talks with a U.S. peace envoy, demanding a reply on their offer of a seven-day reduction of violence in Afghanistan, or they would walk away from the negotiating table, two Taliban officials said Wednesday. Published February 12, 2020
"Sometimes life in Afghanistan seemed to be lived without Afghans," is how former British ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles describes the daily reality unspooling behind his Kabul embassy's tall suicide barriers and barbed wire. Published July 19, 2011
When the history of the 2011 Arab revolts is written, it may be forgotten that the first pro-democracy uprising in the region was not Arab, but Persian. In June 2009, two years before a wave of democratic revolts swept through Tunisia, Egypt and a half-dozen other Arab dictatorships, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest an allegedly rigged election. Published June 24, 2011
The negotiations in Kabul between the Afghan government and the Taliban did little, and claims that they achieved a major breakthrough were inflated, participants and local analysts said. Published October 10, 2010
The Taliban has prepared for its annual spring offensive by sowing bombs and booby traps around the valley's country lanes. Invisible explosives stud walls, ditches and even trees. Published April 5, 2010
For the soldiers of Alpha Company of the 82nd Airborne Division, Kabul's conference halls and money-guzzling ministries seem like distant places. Published March 30, 2010
A ripped-from-the-headlines play titled "Mother Greece" is drawing large crowds for its piercing send-up of what Greeks mournfully call "Elliniki pragmatikotita" or "Greek reality." Published January 4, 2010
Iran's opposition movement has yet to produce a charismatic leader but has a diverse and growing group of organizers, including numerous students and veterans of an abortive 1999 uprising, Iran specialists say. Published January 1, 2010
The Iranian regime, desperate to restore order after massive protests, arrested more than 1,000 people Monday in an increasingly doubtful bid to suppress an opposition movement that appears to be growing stronger by the day. Published December 29, 2009
The confession she was urged to sign made Zarah Ghahramani out to be "a sort of Mata Hari, part spy, part whore." But all this teenage student at Tehran University was guilty of when she stumbled through a harrowing imprisonment in Tehran's Evin Prison was participating in the greatest civil unrest in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Published December 29, 2009
Iran's six-month political crisis escalated Sunday as security forces killed at least eight people, including the nephew of an opposition leader, and arrested hundreds, creating new martyrs and momentum for Iran's opposition. Published December 28, 2009
Iranian police opened fire on demonstrators Sunday, killing presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's nephew and several others and creating new martyrs and momentum for Iran's opposition. Published December 27, 2009
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a high-level visit to Iran on Monday with criticism of Western pressure on Iran over its nuclear program and promises to double trade with the Islamic republic by 2011. Published October 27, 2009
Only a few months ago, Mehdi was tying a green ribbon around the wrist of former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami in the euphoria sweeping Iran before June 12 presidential elections. Published September 29, 2009
Three decades ago, Moshen Sazegara quit his studies at the University of Illinois to join Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile to lead Iran's Islamic revolution. Published August 17, 2009
Beyond the power struggle playing out on the streets of Tehran is a complex battle for control of Iran's intelligence ministry -- a pivotal institution in the regime's repression of dissent. Published August 6, 2009
Iran's Islamic revolution three decades ago reached a crucial turning point when a policeman failed to dislodge a man from simply standing at a crossroads in Tehran. Published August 3, 2009
Editor's note: Iason Athanasiadis was jailed from June 17 to July 5 in Tehran's Evin prison after covering Iran's presidential elections. Published July 31, 2009
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the U.S. government has not done everything it can to educate and engage the public in preventing terrorism. Published July 29, 2009
Female flight attendants in head scarves had begun attending to passengers inside the Iran Air aircraft bound for Dubai. But as long as the plane remained on the tarmac, I couldn't feel free. Published July 13, 2009
