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Eight years ago this week, the Taliban emptied the coffers of the Central Bank and ran away from Kabul. Yet a number of myths still haunt the debate on Afghanistan -- and the Obama administration's policy. Myth No. 1: No foreign power ever managed to subjugate Afghanistan, "The graveyard of empires." Historic truth is different. What's now known as Afghanistan was part of successive empires until 1702, when a Persian adventurer, Ahmad Dorrani, set it up as his fiefdom. With the European powers' rise, it became a buffer state separating the domains of Russia, Britain and Persia. The Afghans did...

July 27, 2009, 0:00 a.m. End of DiscussionIn Iran, there is a growing consensus that it is time to move beyond Khomeinism. By Amir Taheri No one knows how the current Iranian insurrection, triggered by last month’s disputed presidential election, will end. However, one thing is already clear: The doctrine of walayat faqih (“government of the theologian”), the cornerstone of the Khomeinist system, is dead. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini invented the doctrine to justify the claim that he drew his legitimacy from Allah and was accountable solely to Him. In practice, walayat faqih was supposed to work the...

Tehran's Tricks: Plays Rope-A-Dope On Nukes August 1, 2008 TOMORROW is the deadline for Iran to respond to the latest offer on its nuclear program. The package, shaped by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and offered in Geneva two weeks ago, offers a way out of the impasse. But don't expect Tehran to call the lead negotiator, European Union foreign-policy czar Javier Solana, to say it's accepted the deal. Iran has made it clear it doesn't intend to show any flexibility. "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set the tone Wednesday in...

Murder's Mess for Muqtada April 16, 2008 New York Post Amir Taheri Riad al-Noori liked to boast that a "host of angels" protected him, along with his 250 heavily armed bodyguards. Yet, he has just been gunned down in his home in Najaf, Iraq's principal "holy" city, by a three-man hit team that managed to get away without any of the angels or bodyguards making a move. Noori was a bad man but an important player in the dirtiest corner of Iraqi Shiite politics. He headed the special bureau of Muqtada al-Sadr, the maverick mullah sponsored by Tehran. Himself a...

Iran has just carried out the largest wave of executions since 1984. It is early dawn as seven young men are led to the gallows amid shouts of "Allah Akbar" (Allah is the greatest) from a crowd of bearded men as a handful of women, all in hijab, ululate to a high pitch. A few minutes later, the seven are hanged as a mullah shouts: "Alhamd li-Allah" (Praise be to Allah). The scene was Wednesday in Mashad, Iran's second most populous city, where a crackdown against "anti-Islam hooligans" has been under way for weeks. The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on...

What would you do when faced with a cash flow problem? You might try to curb expenditure, work harder to earn more, borrow money, or, when all else fails, put up the family jewels for sale. The latter is precisely what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration is trying to do as it faces a cash shortage. Signs that the government may be running out of money have multiplied in recent months. Tens of thousands of civil servants, including school teachers, have not been paid since January. Bills from private contractors working for the government are piling up, threatening the survival of...

Iran: The Conspiracy that Wasn't July 20, 2007 The New York Post Amir Taheri . . . THOUGH IT DOES SEEM A FINE IDEA Esfandiari: Hardly a "foreign plotter." EVER since its creation in 1979, the Islamic Republic in Iran has been obsessed with conspiracy theories, especially "foreign plots" to topple it. This paranoia was demonstrated again Wednesday with the televised confessions of two U.S. citizens of Iranian origin arrested in Tehran and accused of working for the "Great Satan." To most Iranians who watched the sordid show, the two "enemies of Islam" seemed unlikely heroes of an international conspiracy....

Iran: The Radical Wins Again February 28, 2007 New York Post Amir Taheri As the Tehran leadership prepares to go to the wire in its confrontation with the international community over the nuclear issue, one thing is clear: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is emerging with his position in the Khomeinist establishment strengthened. Just a few weeks ago, we were told that Ahmadinejad's star was on the wane, that "moderate mullahs" had persuaded "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei to restrain the firebrand president. Yet last week, as the U.N. Security Council's ultimatum to the Islamic Republic expired, it was Ahmadinejad who gave the...

HOW IRAN'S NUKE QUEST BEGAN Amir Taheri October 5, 2006 -- IRAN'S President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to vehemently deny the Islamic Republic's desire to develop nuclear weapons. But last week, his rival for power came out with sensational revelations that paint a completely different picture - pointing to the military reasons why Iran revived its nuclear program in 1988. The rival is businessman/mullah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989-'97 but lost to Ahmadinejad last year. His revelations relate to 1988, when he was speaker of the Majlis (parliament) and also commander-in-chief of the armed forces (acting on...

While diplomats at the United Nations ponder what to do next about the Iranian nuclear program, the state-owned media in Teheran are conducting a psychological campaign to prepare the public for a long crisis if not actual war. Many Iranians, however, are not sure what the fuss is about and are asking whether the confrontational course adopted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the only, not to say the best, strategy. Doubts about the wisdom of Ahmadinejad's defiant posture, initially voiced by the anti-regime opposition at home and abroad, are now spreading to factions within the Khomeinist regime itself. One example...

What do citizens of Japan, Pakistan, Switzerland, and Canada have in common? The answer is that they, along with the citizens of all but one of the 198 member states of the United Nations, live under illegitimate governments. Wow! And, which is the sole country with the only legitimate government on earth? According to one Ali-Akbar Meshkini the answer is simple: the only country with a legitimate government is the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to Meshkini the only " bright spot" in the world is Iran which accounts for just under one per cent of the earth. The rest...

PUSHING FOR ARMAGEDDON - Inside Iran's New Power Struggle N.Y. Post Amir Taheri June 16, 2006 -excerpt- The theological division among Shi'ites concerns a simple question: What should believers do while the Imam is absent? One doctrine, known as Intizar (waiting) maintains that the best that believers can do is to be patient and wait until the Imam decides to return. Followers of that doctrine are known as Muntazeris (Those Who Wait). That doctrine is opposed by another known as Ta'ajil (To hasten). Its adepts believe that believers should act to hasten the coming of the Mahdi. The Ta'ajilis (Hasteners)...

It is not only in Tehran and Damascus that the game of "waiting Bush out" is played with determination. In recent visits to several regional capitals, this writer was struck by the popularity of this new game from Islamabad to Rabat. The general assumption is that Mr. Bush's plan to help democratize the heartland of Islam is fading under an avalanche of partisan attacks inside the U.S. The effect of this assumption can be witnessed everywhere. In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf has shelved his plan, forged under pressure from Washington, to foster a popular front to fight terrorism by lifting restrictions...

March 28, 2006 -- HAVING crossed another false crescendo, the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions seems to be calming down somewhat. The U.N. Security Council has danced its way away from the issue - at least for the time being. And the United States, having subcontracted its Iran policy to the European Union trio, shows no sign of wanting to keep the issue under the limelight.

With attention focused on the international row over the Islamic republic’s alleged attempt at building an atomic bomb, the average observer might not notice the domestic side of the debate. The new radical administration in Tehran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is doing all it can to make this an “us vs. them” issue, whipping up xenophobic sentiments and diverting attention from the country’s real problems. Nevertheless, Iran may be heading for its deepest crisis since the 1970s. This crisis, related to the nuclear issue, has two aspects. The first, and probably the most significant, is a moral one. There...

FOOLISH FORCE VS. DUMB DIPLOMACY HAVING resumed uranium enrichment, has the Islamic Republic crossed the Rubicon? The question is dividing commentators and decision makers both inside and outside Iran. Some, like former Vice President Al Gore, believe that the Islamic Republic is a threat to world peace and must be checked, by force if necessary. Others — like Gore's former boss, ex-President Bill Clinton — are convinced that the best way to deal with Iran is to negotiate. Yet both may be missing the point. If military action means a few brief airstrikes or missile attacks, it is certain to...

Anxious to cultivate his populist image, Iran’s new President Ahmadinejad has promised to hold the monthly sessions of his Cabinet in provincial capitals rather than Tehran. Now, however, it seems as if, for reasons of security, he may not be able to take his road show to all of Iran’s 30 provinces. A session scheduled to take place in the province of Kurdistan last month had to be rescheduled at the last minute, supposedly because the relevant documents were not ready in time. And last week the president was forced to cancel another session, due to take place in Ahvaz,...

When Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his "wipe Israel off the map" remarks last month, many diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to explain, read between the lines and relativize what was an unambiguous statement of Teheran's long-established policy. They expressed the hope that Iran would "clarify" - meaning soften - its position. That was followed by feverish diplomatic activities, mainly by the United Nations' Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to persuade Teheran to tone down Ahmadinejad's remarks. (Annan was forced to cancel a planned visit to Teheran after the Iranians told him they would not allow any conciliatory phrases...

WHAT IS the latest?” Iraqis ask as they come together for tea and sympathy in these times of hope and uncertainty. And there is always someone who answers by reporting the discovery of a new mass grave where the victims of Saddam Hussein were buried. According to the latest estimates, the remains of more than 200,000 people, the fruit of the 35-year-long rule of his Arab Socialist Baath Party, have been found in this ever expanding archipelago of death. And yet, as the fallen dictator’s trial opens today, he faces only one charge: the massacre of 143 men, women and...

THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is scheduled this week to decide whether to refer Iran to the United Nations' Security Council for alleged violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is making a last-minute effort to stall the decision, but it is already clear that the European strategy--carried out by Britain, France, and Germany--for dealing with Iran's clandestine quest for nuclear weapons has failed.The trio of E.U. nations had based their policy on three assumptions. The first was that Tehran was playing the nuclear issue merely for short-term political gains, to attract attention and...