Pakistan and Iran share a common border and some of the same challenges as well. In recent years, there have been a number of impediments to the relationship between the two states, most of them engendered by America’s antipathy to Iran and the regime of sanctions against it deployed by the US. Those sanctions have a spillover effect on Pakistan as it may find itself the subject of American sanctions if it is seen to breach those imposed by the US — a potent threat. It has already blighted the proposed gas pipeline between the two countries.

American wrestler Jacob Curby died before he could fulfill his dream of competing in the Olympics. But a competition established in his name will mark another milestone in the accelerating sports diplomacy between Iran and the United States.

But as years went by, that never happened, and Bakshi realized that platforms like Google and Facebook often failed to encourage people to connect in meaningful, personal ways over long distances.

Talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last six hours. A month away from a nuclear deal deadline, U.S. and Iranian diplomats tried to narrow differences over how quickly to ease economic penalties against Tehran and how significantly the Iranians must open up military facilities to international inspections.

Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador for Iran and centre of the so-called Canadian caper in 1979, gave a speech to the school’s graduating class at the Jubilee Auditorium last week. Born in Calgary, Taylor graduated from Crescent Heights in the 1950s. He played basketball and football for the school (“I wasn’t drafted,” he jokes) but yearned to travel the world. He got his wish, embarking on a globe-trotting career in the foreign service.

Maryam Faghih Imani seems an unlikely candidate to give an address that will touch on making peace between Israelis and Iranians, as she will at an international forum in Oslo Wednesday. After all, she grew up the daughter of one of Iran’s most prominent ayatollahs. She spent her summers in the city of Isfahan playing with the children of other prominent ayatollahs, including those of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

As the new government gets started, the main actors in the Mideast diplomatic drama are all pulling in very different directions.