Charles Recknagel is standards editor for RFE/RL.
A suspected nuclear facility in Iran Officials from Britain, France, and Germany are meeting with Iranian representatives in Paris today to discuss European incentives aimed at persuading Tehran to end activities that could lead to developing nuclear weapons. The efforts by the three EU powers are being closely watched by Washington. But it is far from clear whether any "grand bargain" to end the Iran nuclear crisis can be reached.
Bush declares victory on 3 November U.S. President George W. Bush has won a second chance to tackle the major foreign-policy challenges that characterized his first four years in office. They include rebuilding strained U.S.-European relations, the crises over Iraq and Iran, and growing U.S. concerns about Syria. Bush was much-criticized by challenger John Kerry for having a "go-it-alone" foreign policy. Many Europeans are now asking whether Bush will seek more multilateral strategies in a second term.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says time is running out for Al-Fallujah residents to evict foreign fighters from the city of face a U.S.-Iraqi military operation to do so. The last-minute warnings come amid growing reports that U.S. troops who ring Al-Fallujah are preparing for hard fighting in the city and expect it to begin soon.
Insurgents have killed 49 recruits of Iraq's National Guard in an ambush as the men were traveling home to visit relatives after completing training. The ambush -- a well-coordinated operation in which the insurgents posed as policemen -- is the latest escalation in what is becoming a determined insurgent campaign against Iraq's still fledgling security forces. As they target the Iraqi government forces, the insurgents are seeking to undermine public confidence in the government ahead of the planned first round of elections in January.
President Khatami has said he is open to negotiations Prague, 21 October 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Britain, France, and Germany are offering a deal they say guarantees Tehran's ability to pursue a nuclear energy program while reassuring the world Iran is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Kidnappers have seized a woman who many consider to be the unofficial head of the international humanitarian community in Baghdad. She is Margaret Hassan, a dual British-Iraqi national who has lived in Iraq more than 30 years and is the head of operations for the international charity CARE. Hassan, believed to be in her late 50s, was born in Dublin and married into a prominent Iraqi family. Throughout Iraq's past decades of crisis -- including UN sanctions and the war last year -- she stayed in Iraq, working on projects to bring water and health care to the poorest sections of society.
Washington has formally rejected a Saudi proposal for a Muslim force under UN control to guard UN election staffers in Iraq. The White House says U.S. commanders have strong reservations about such force because it would be outside the coalition command structure. But as Washington rejects the initiative, where does that leave U.S. hopes for convincing Muslim countries to take part in securing Iraq?
As Americans go to the polls to elect a president on 2 November, people throughout the Muslim world will be awaiting the results with keen interest. That is because the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has put Washington's relations with the Muslim world at the top of America's foreign policy priorities. Under Bush, Washington declared war on Islamic terrorist groups in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks and launched the largest U.S. military operation ever in the Muslim world with the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In the final part of a three-part series on the global impact of the U.S. election, RFE/RL reports that people from the Middle East to the Persian Gulf to Central Asia see the outcome of the U.S. election as directly influencing their lives. But while the choices of the past are clear, they are having a hard time differentiating between the two candidates' visions of the future.
Fuat Sezgin is one of the world's most prominent historians of science and technology in the Muslim world. The 80-year-old Turkish professor is the director of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and a prodigiously productive writer. He has compiled a 13-volume history of Islam's Golden Age of Science, including three new books on the accomplishments of Arabic and Islamic cartographers. He says the cartographers not only opened much of the world to Muslim traders but also paved the way for European navigators, who later defined our modern view of geography.
Al-Fallujah remains a trouble spot (file photo) Al-Fallujah has long made the headlines as the most restive place in central Iraq. The Sunni-majority city is the base of a number of locally and foreign-led insurgent groups, including that of Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted man in Iraq. But now, there are new efforts afoot to bring Al-Fallujah under the Iraqi government's control.
Iraqi author Betool Khedairi is the daughter of an Iraqi father and Scottish mother who writes about the clash of Eastern and Western values. Her books, set in Iraq and written in Arabic, have established her as a strong new voice in Iraqi literature. In translation, her work also is getting increasing notice abroad. RFE/RL spoke with Khedairi about her writing as she visited the Frankfurt Book Fair this month.
For much of this year, U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq have had to cope with repeated uprisings by militiamen loyal to radical Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The worst uprisings -- in April and again in August -- cost hundreds of lives and saw fighting endanger one of Shi'a Islam's holiest shrines, the Imam Ali Mosque complex in Al-Najaf. Each of those uprisings ended in tenuous truces that failed to bring a full stop to the violence. U.S. forces in recent weeks have repeatedly bombed the militia's positions in its stronghold of Al-Sadr City in Baghdad, and militiamen have fought with U.S. and Iraqi army patrols. But now there are possible signs of a comprehensive peace agreement. The Iraqi government says it is giving Shi'a militiamen five days to hand in their weapons under a weekend peace deal agreed with aides of al-Sadr. In return, the government has agreed to commit more than $500 million to rebuilding Al-Sadr City.
This year, the world's largest international gathering for authors and publishers is focusing on the Arab world. The Frankfurt Book Fair -- now in its third day -- has devoted much of one of its largest halls to displays of books and other publications from the 22 Arab countries. But more is going on here than just the exhibits. The fair is also a meeting place where Arab intellectuals are hosting seminars to discuss many of the region's problems and propose solutions. Among the most active participants are Arab women. They include writers of all kinds -- from authors of popular fiction to sociologists to human rights activists. Their presence at the forum highlights some of the challenges women face in the male-dominated Arab world.
Hostage takers in Iraq have seized another 10 people, including two Indonesian women. The abductions raise anew the question of whether the kidnappings of foreigners in Iraq are mainly for political or financial gain and whether countries should pay ransom to free their citizens.
Iraq is home to some of the world's oldest communities of Christians, who traditionally have made up some 3 percent of the population. But today their numbers are reported to be decreasing. Iraq's Christians say they are routinely targeted by Islamist extremists who attack their shops and restaurants which sell alcohol and sometimes bomb churches. Separately, kidnappers prey on wealthy Christians as well as other Iraqis to extort ransom from them -- sometimes killing hostages when families cannot pay. As such pressures mount, many Christians are choosing to leave Iraq's larger cities and move to safer areas in the north of the country or abroad. Estimates of the number of people leaving their homes vary widely and exact numbers are not available. But as RFE/RL reports, substantial numbers of Iraqi Christians are on the move.
Questions are growing over whether Iraq will be able to hold fully nationwide elections in January as part of its planned transition to a more democratic system of government. Top U.S. officials are increasingly saying the poor security situation in parts of the country might exclude those areas from participating in the poll. The statements are sparking new political debate in the United States over how well Washington is meeting its goals in Iraq.
Iyad Allawi During his visit to the United States this week, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi addressed the Congress and thanked the American people for toppling Saddam Hussein. But who is this man who heads Iraq's interim government and how much progress is he making in building a new post-Hussein order?
Britain is ruling out negotiations with the captors of Kenneth Bigley, the only surviving member of the trio of American and British contractors taken hostage in Iraq last week. The hostage takers have released a video of Bigley appealing directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair to do something to save his life and emotions in Britain are running high. At the same time, there are unconfirmed reports today that hostage takers have killed two female Italian aid workers seized in Baghdad earlier this month.
Hostage takers in Iraq have stepped up their kidnappings aimed at driving out foreign companies involved in reconstruction projects. Over the past weeks, the operations have moved from highway abductions of drivers to raids on offices and residential sites in Baghdad. Today, two female Italian aid workers, two American contractors, and a British engineer are being held hostage, along with dozens of employees of regional firms doing business in Iraq.
Holding elections are crucial for establishing a more popular-based Iraqi government able to guarantee the country's security without large numbers of international troops. But plans for a first round of polls in January are looking increasingly tenuous amid the current high level of insurgent violence. In recent days, U.S. officials have continued to maintain that national elections will be held in January. But others -- including the interim Iraqi president and the UN Secretary-General -- have suggested that the election date may have to be changed if the present security situation does not improve.
Load more
