By Anne Gearan Mapping the way out of an unpopular war, the United States and NATO are trying to build an Afghan army that can defend the country after 130,000 international troops pull out. The alliance's plans for arm's-length support for Afghanistan will be a central focus of the summit President Barack Obama is hosting Sunday and Monday in Chicago. Raise your voiceRaise Your Voice Click to write to your ...

By Lina Saigol in London An oil tanker belonging to Iran’s state-owned shipping line has been switching flags and using multiple companies to transport crude from Syria to Iran, illustrating how Tehran is helping to sidestep international efforts to choke the finances of Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president. Documents obtained by the Financial Times show the vessel, operated by the Islamic Republic Internation ...

Iran on Tuesday hanged a man convicted of killing a nuclear scientist in 2010 and for spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, state media reported. Majid Jamali Fashi was executed at Tehran's Evin Prison, the IRNA news agency reported. The Iranian state prosecutor says he confessed to assassinating Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. Ali- Mohammadi was killed by an explosion outside his Tehran home in January 20 ...

By Kevin Sieff and Sayed Salahuddin KABUL — A former Taliban leader turned peace negotiator was assassinated Sunday by three unidentified gunmen in a brazen attack in the Afghan capital, hours before leaders here announced the next phase in the country’s security transition. Arsala Rahmani, 70, was fatally shot while traveling through central Kabul. He was a key member of the High Peace Council, a group res ...

By David Ignatius Let’s assume the signals from the White House and Tehran are reliable, and that Iran is serious about an agreement to remove its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium from the country and stop producing more. What happens then? This question of “next steps” in the Iran nuclear talks is important, because neither side is likely to commit to the first set of “confidence-building measures” ...

By Rama Lakshmi An Indian police team will visit Tehran this month as part of an investigation into the role of three Iranians suspected of carrying out a bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi in February, a police official said Thursday. The three-man team will seek information on the suspects’ movements, “when they left the country, when they returned, where they went, their phone records ...

By Joby Warrick and Steven Mufson Increasingly hard-pressed to find buyers for its petroleum, Iran has been routinely switching off satellite tracking systems on its sea-bound oil tankers for more than a month, in what U.S. officials and industry analysts describe as a cat-and-mouse game with Western governments seeking to enforce sanctions on Iranian exports. The unusual tactic was begun in early April and ...

By Kevin Sieff KABUL —Afghan commanders have refused more than a dozen times within the past two months to act on U.S. intelligence regarding high-level insurgents, arguing that night-time operations to target the men would result in civilian casualties, Afghan officials say. The defiance highlights the shift underway in Afghanistan as Afghan commanders make use of their newfound power to veto operations pr ...