. Alternatively, the Obama administration could heed the recommendation of a recent Atlantic Council report by "[d]esignating a small number of US and private Iranian financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian, educational, and public diplomacy-related transactions carefully licensed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control."

The US has eased restrictions on the sale of mobile phones and other communications devices, software and services to Iranians.The move is intended to promote Iranians' political freedom, countering what the US describes as Tehran's efforts to "silence its people".

Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi underlined that the world public opinion is in favor of the diplomatic settlement of the crisis in Syria and Tehran is due to hold a conference later this month to this end. He stressed that the world public opinion is very much interested in seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria but certain countries fanned the flames of the proxy war in Syria and caused a true crisis there through financial and arms supports to terrorists groups.

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service...They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Ishaan Tharoor wrote in the Time magazine: “Two years later [today], Turkey’s vaunted soft power looks more soft than powerful… Erdoğan, too, cuts a smaller, humbler figure on the world stage… His overwhelming support for the Syrian opposition is not mirrored by the majority of the Turkish public, and his reliance on other foreign powers to push the diplomatic envelope has resulted in something of a loss of face.”

Ishaan Tharoor wrote in the Time magazine: “Two years later today, Turkey’s vaunted soft power looks more soft than powerful… Erdoğan, too, cuts a smaller, humbler figure on the world stage… His overwhelming support for the Syrian opposition is not mirrored by the majority of the Turkish public, and his reliance on other foreign powers to push the diplomatic envelope has resulted in something of a loss of face.”

Coupled with our concerns about human rights are our concerns about the well-being of the Iranian people. Every day, we hear from the Iranian people directly through our public diplomacy programs and Farsi-language social media platforms. The Virtual Embassy Tehran, launched in December 2011, has over 2 million hits and our Farsi-language Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube channel have also been enormously successful.

Cheered on by a raucous crowd waving flags and chanting, a team of Iranian wrestlers defeated the United States, 6-1, in an exhibition match staged in New York’s Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday.