I am the United Nations bureau chief for The New York Times leading coverage of the organization. I also cover Iran and how countries around the world deal with conflicts in the Middle East. I am based in New York.
I report on diplomacy as it unfolds during U.N. Security Council meetings and in the backrooms of diplomatic circles. Examples include efforts for a cease-fire in Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a U.N. agency’s $35 million financial scandal. I also cover the U.N.’s humanitarian relief efforts around natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, or military and economic catastrophes.
In my other role as the Iran reporter for The Times, I draw from my deep knowledge of the country, cultivated from my 25 years of covering Iran for major American newspapers, my native language skills and my network of sources. My stories range from domestic politics to the women-led uprising, human rights abuses, and Iran’s growing influence through its proxy militias in the region. I also like to tell stories that surprise and engage readers like the older couple next door who turned out to be serial killers, a viral dance that became a nationwide protest and a New York Times Magazine cover story, illustrated like a graphic novel, based on diaries of three young Iranian women. For the past four years a big focus of my Iran reporting has been the shadow war between Iran and Israel.
My Background
I was born in the United States to Iranian parents and grew up in Tehran and Portland, Oregon. I stumbled into journalism as a sophomore in college in Tehran, majoring in English, when a visiting New York Times correspondent hired me as a translator in Iran. I knew instantly journalism was my calling. I see journalism as a privilege and a responsibility to give voice to people’s stories and travel the world with a front seat to history. I have always been a newspaper reporter, drawn to the immediacy and thrill of news and the impact of stepping back to tell a story in-depth. I have covered local communities in rural Rhode Island as a reporter for the Providence Journal, and as an investigative reporter at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, I wrote about the intersection of organized crime, corruption and politics. Before The Times, I was a war correspondent based in the Middle East and senior writer for The Wall Street Journal for 17 years. I have been based in Kabul, Baghdad, Beirut and Tehran, running bureaus and covering wars, intifadas and uprisings across the region and beyond. My work has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and in 2018 I was the recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognizing an immigrant’s distinguished contributions to American society. I have written a book on the impact of the Iraq war on Iraqis titled, “Waiting for an Ordinary Day.”
I received a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University studying poetry, creative writing and the laws that led to regulations of race relations in the U.S.
Journalistic Ethics
As a Times journalist, I’m committed to truthful reporting and upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. I am diligent about cross referencing and verifying information with multiple sources independent from one another. I do not base stories purely on videos and posts on social media, or accounts told from one side of the divide. It is my job to interview Iranian government officials and their supporters as well as their critics, opponents, and everyone in between. I also try to reflect the voices of ordinary people living inside the countries I write about and speak to as many people as I can for any given story. I do not participate in any protests or donate to any political causes or campaigns. I strongly believe that a journalist is not an activist. I do not pay for information, and I do not accept any gifts from sources. I cannot help place or solicit opinion pieces because there is a strict division between the news and opinion departments. I believe journalists should not be harassed, intimidated and threatened and such attempts to influence or intimidate me will have no bearing on my work.
Contact Me
The best way to contact me is through email. For confidential tips please use NYT tips.
The announcement provides U.S. support to permanent council seats for African nations, though not new veto powers. But the path to adding members requires far more than White House approval.
The Israeli airstrike, which the military said targeted Hamas militants, appeared to use 2,000-pound bombs, which Israel has been criticized for using in heavily populated areas.
By Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Ephrat Livni, Sanjana Varghese and Thomas Fuller
U.S. and European countries had warned of sanctions if Iran provided weapons that could be used against Ukraine. President Biden’s lame-duck status could hamper a response.
By Steven Erlanger, Julian E. Barnes and Michael Crowley
With a flurry of hacks and fake websites, Iran has intensified its efforts to discredit American democracy and possibly tip the race against former President Donald Trump.
By Steven Lee Myers, Tiffany Hsu and Farnaz Fassihi
Hundreds of troops entered cities in the occupied territory, targeting Palestinian militants. It was a significant escalation after months of raids that have unfolded alongside the war in Gaza.
By Aaron Boxerman, Adam Rasgon, Raja Abdulrahim and Thomas Fuller
The comments from an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leader suggested that a widely feared regional conflict might be averted, at least for the moment.
Top officials from the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar ended two days of talks in Doha aimed at trying to resolve remaining disagreements between Israel and Hamas.
By Ronen Bergman, Julian E. Barnes, Farnaz Fassihi, Aaron Boxerman and Adam Rasgon
Secretary General António Guterres’s public comments came just before Gazan health authorities announced the first case of the disease in the enclave in many years.
The delay is meant to allow mediators time to make a high-stakes push for a cease-fire to end the war in Gaza, according to U.S., Iranian and Israeli officials, who warn
By Ronen Bergman, Julian E. Barnes, Farnaz Fassihi and Adam Rasgon
Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation shocked Iran’s political circles and came as President Masoud Pezeshkian announced that his cabinet would include several conservatives and only one woman.
The bureau has repeatedly warned about foreign countries meddling in the upcoming election, including using artificial intelligence to spread misinformation.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to restart peace talks between Hamas and Israel, while Israel carries on its operation in Gaza and braces for attacks by Iran and Hezbollah.
By Raja Abdulrahim, Ameera Harouda, Aaron Boxerman and Thomas Fuller
President Biden convened his national security team and spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and foreign ministers from Islamic countries plan to gather in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Iran has begun a sweeping investigation into the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, with its intensity a sign of how damaging and shocking the security failure was.
The Israeli military said it had killed Muhammad Deif, who it called a planner of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which would make him the third Iranian-backed militant leader slain in recent days.
By Aaron Boxerman, Farnaz Fassihi, Euan Ward and Michael Levenson
An explosive device hidden in a heavily guarded complex where Ismail Haniyeh was known to stay in Iran was what killed him, according to a Times investigation.
By Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti and Farnaz Fassihi
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered retaliation after a humiliating security failure, as Iran once again balances showing strength against the risk of escalation.
Tensions are on a knife edge after Israel carried out a strike on the Hezbollah leader allegedly behind an attack in the Golan Heights.
By Sabrina Tavernise, Ben Hubbard, Rachelle Bonja, Sydney Harper, Shannon M. Lin, Will Reid, Lexie Diao, Patricia Willens, Dan Powell, Sophia Lanman and Chris Wood
Mr. Haniyeh, the Palestinian militant group’s exiled political chief, managed high-stakes negotiations, including the ongoing cease-fire talks to end the war in Gaza.
The strike was in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack this weekend in the Golan Heights. At least three civilians were killed and 74 others wounded on Tuesday, Lebanese officials said.
By Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon, Euan Ward, Farnaz Fassihi and Hwaida Saad
American intelligence agencies were tracking an Iranian threat even before the attack on former President Donald J. Trump. But officials said the two were unrelated.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a widowed doctor, portrays himself as a reformer who can bring social and economic shifts. But others have tried and failed before him, and numerous obstacles are in his path.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon and relative moderate in the ruling establishment, defeated an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator in a runoff.
For the first time in years, the outcome is difficult to predict, and could be decided by how many people end their boycotts and participate in the vote.
Candidates in the campaign to fill the seat of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash, showed notable candor about the country’s mounting problems.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Alissa J. Rubin and Russell Goldman
Iran has expanded its most sensitive nuclear production site in recent weeks. And for the first time, some leaders are dropping their insistence that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
In a sign that a women-led movement has gained ground, all of the men running for president have distanced themselves from the harsh tactics used to enforce mandatory hijab.
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has made detaining foreigners and dual citizens a centerpiece of its foreign policy, trading them for money and people.
Iran released an E.U. diplomat from Sweden and a dual Iranian-Swedish national, while Sweden released a former Iranian judiciary official serving a life sentence for war crimes.
While the U.S. secretary of state kept up the pressure for a halt to the hostilities in Gaza, Israel and Hamas still appeared to be far from reaching a deal.
The Security Council endorsed a U.S.-backed plan, while Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited the Middle East to lobby for it, but Hamas and Israel were noncommittal.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Michael Crowley, Mike Ives and Thomas Fuller
The Israeli military said it killed militants in the central part of the enclave on Friday, a day after a strike on a former school, where Gazan officials say civilians were killed.
By Bilal Shbair, Aaron Boxerman, Raja Abdulrahim and Thomas Fuller
The ayatollah announced five days of mourning for the president and foreign minister who died when their helicopter plunged into a mountainous region. Some Iranians celebrated the deaths.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Vivian Yee and Leily Nikounazar
The deaths of two of Iran’s most high-profile leaders — President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian — come at a tumultuous time for the country.
A hard-liner and career diplomat long focused on Iran’s relationships in the Middle East, he died in a helicopter crash that also killed Iran’s president.
The hard-line Shiite cleric was seen as a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader. Mr. Raisi’s death comes at a moment of turbulence for a country facing a deepening conflict with Israel.
Rescuers are trying to locate the helicopter on which President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian were traveling, state media reported. Their status is unknown.