Word: tehran
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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Iran is gloating now that it has seized its public enemy No. 1. On Feb. 22, Iranian agents allegedly intercepted Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of Jundallah, a Sunni extremist group that has waged a low-level war against Tehran for the better part of a decade, killing hundreds. According to state media, Rigi, 27, was on a flight bound for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from Dubai when the Iranians forced the plane to land at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. A day later, Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi hailed Rigi's arrest as proof of "the power of the Islamic Republic...
...still unclear how exactly Tehran caught wind of Rigi's presence in Dubai. News of the arrest has only been gleaned from accounts revealed by Iranian state-media sources and cannot be independently confirmed. On Feb. 25, Iranian state television broadcast footage of a supposed confession made by Rigi, saying he was flying to Central Asia to meet with American handlers at the U.S.-run Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan. Intelligence Minister Moslehi had already pointed his finger at Washington and the hand of the CIA, claiming to have evidence that Rigi was earlier housed at a U.S. base...
...government has never been shy to criticize Iran over its dismal human-rights record, particularly since Tehran launched a crackdown on opposition voices following last summer's election. But the U.S. stance remains considerably more subdued when Egypt, Washington's biggest Arab ally in the region, exercises similar bad behavior. And the months ahead will test just how subdued it intends...
...unfolded yet. Parliamentary elections are still several months away, and presidential elections aren't slated until next year. But there are signs of an imminent crackdown on opposition groups. U.S. silence on the issue suggests that Cairo may be able to avoid the international spotlight in a way that Tehran did not. (See the line of political succession in Egypt...
President Obama vowed prompt U.N. sanctions against Iran after Tehran announced it had begun a program to enrich uranium, which the West fears could be used to build nuclear weapons. Iran's announcement was effectively a rejection of last year's U.S. offer to convert Iranian uranium into medical isotopes in a third country. The new sanctions would target members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, who are thought to control the nuclear program. Russia is expected to support the measures, but China, one of the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, has cautioned against them...