The sycamore trees that line the northern stretches of Vali Asr Avenue in Tehran arch overhead like a canopy. In the winter, their snowy branches frame a view of the Alborz Mountains where Tehranis escape to hike or ski. On a summer day, the leaves filter the sun and smog in the affluent northern neighborhoods, and you can watch the temperature rise by ten degrees as you inch your way southward in the city's infamous traffic toward the heart of old Tehran.

On Friday leaders of Central Asian nations will meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. China arguably wields the most power of the countries involved, and the propaganda mills in Beijing are pumping out content hailing the importance of the upcoming meeting. In the end, though, what does it really mean for the Middle Kingdom?

Foreign governments began a new round of diplomatic shuffling following President Barack Obama’s announcement on Tuesday night that U.S.-led military strikes against the Assad regime were on hold. During a televised address, the commander in chief said intervention had been temporarily shelved as U.S. officials prepare to enter negotiations regarding the handover of chemical weapons.

September brings a change in seasons and a chance to remember. A dozen years have passed since the day the twin towers fell, but we never look at a bright-blue, clear September sky quite the same way, and certainly each September 11 anniversary gives us pause. With so much global agony, including conflict in Syria and throughout the Middle East, this is a good time to remind ourselves about the value of our diplomacy, particularly public diplomacy, and to remember those working overseas so that we can feel secure at home.

Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies. Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

The government here viewed a Russian proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to an international body as a major tactical victory in the face of a looming U.S.-led attack. "Moscow and Damascus pull the rug from under Obama's feet," read a headline in the semiofficial Al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday morning.

The U.S. got into its confrontation with Syria over an allegedly unscripted statement from President Obama, and may now get out of it thanks to an off-the-cuff remark from Secretary of State John Kerry. Obama set the stage for military intervention in the Syrian civil war last year with two words: "red line." If we see "a whole bunch of [chemical] weapons moving around or being utilized," that would be a "red line" that would "change my calculus," Obama famously said.

President Barack Obama tried Tuesday to sell a military intervention he never wanted to an American public that opposes it, telling the nation that he needed authorization to attack Syria for chemical weapons use as leverage in a newly emerged diplomatic opening from Russia.