The decision to appoint a new envoy to the United Nations comes as nuclear talks between Iran and the United States and other major powers are coming under fire from U.S. congressional critics of Iran, who are pressing for the passage of new sanctions that the White House claims will torpedo the delicate negotiations. 

Iran and Portugal have signed a cultural agreement to boost and reinforce bilateral cultural relations.  Pointing to the 500-year-old relationship between Iran and Portugal, the Iranian culture minister said, “This relation is unique and needs to be reinforced, and this cultural agreement helps promote the ties.”

Newspapers all over the world were unanimous in praising the legacy of reforms and peace-making efforts by the late King Abdullah. All noted his efforts at giving Saudi women a greater role in society by having better educational and professional opportunities, and highlighted the fact that he extended the right to vote to women.

This month’s summit, held in Beijing, certainly moved the bloc further in that direction. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to double Chinese trade with the Celac countries over the coming decade and to invest $250 billion across the region. Ecuador’s Rafael Correa left the summit with more than $7 billion in new Chinese aid and credit, while Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro received much-needed pledges of investment from China’s state-run Bank of China and China Development Bank.

In his State of the Union address, the President’s core message was that the US has emerged strong from the twin crises caused by the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 global recession. And the challenge he posed to Congress on foreign policy is this. Do we want to continue to operate in crisis mode – being fearful, reactive, and prone to overuse military force in ways that exacerbate security problems and contradict basic values?

 Iranian ambassador to Slovenia met with Slovenian Minister of Culture on Friday to discuss promotion of bilateral arts, cultural, religious ties.

In a world in which diplomacy has expanded from government-to-government contacts into public and cultural diplomacy and in which nations are ranked as much on their performance in high-profile international tournaments as on other attributes, autocratic abuse of sports and its impact on soccer, including performance, is nowhere more prevalent than in the Middle East and North Africa.

Despite the widespread adoption of digital diplomacy, few studies have investigated how governments use SNS in order to frame foreign countries and themselves. Self-framing is practiced by countries as part of nation branding activities.