Harsh international sanctions against Iran are pointless and even counterproductive, members of the Iran Project argued this week in a new report.

Iran's former nuclear negotiator, now a candidate in Iran's presidential election, pledged Thursday to improve rocky relations with the West if he is elected. Hasan Rohani is considered a leading candidate in the June election because of his centrist views and close ties to Iran's ruling clerics. A top supporter said he favors negotiations to resolve the dispute over Iran's suspect nuclear program, while preserving Iran's rights.

Here's a coffee shop in an out-of-the-way part of Baku where the walls are covered with illustrations from an early 20th century satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. The magazine represents a bygone era, when Azerbaijan was a font of new cultural trends in the Muslim world, pioneering such issues as female emancipation, anti-clericalism, anti-colonialism and labor rights. Although Azerbaijan was the birthplace of the magazine, arguably the country affected most by its essays and illustrations was Iran.

After 34 years of hostilities between Iran and the US, there is now an opportunity for settling their mutual differences. The Obama administration has reiterated its willingness to engage in direct bilateral talks with Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has responded to this overture by indicating that Iran would be open to talks when America “proves its goodwill”. And even so, the next round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 world powers began on March 5 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

An ancient Persian symbol of freedom, tolerance and coexistence has joined documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Emancipation Proclamation in Washington..."Exchange derives the history of values globally, and the social empathy that comes from cultural exchange is better than one thousand negotiations," Gopin said. Cultural exchanges are going on between the U.S. and Iran, even with the ongoing conflict over its nuclear ambitions.

Iran is now viewed unfavorably in a majority of Arab countries, according to a major new survey conducted by James Zogby of 20 Arab and Muslim-majority countries. Iran's appeal to mainstream Arab public opinion has virtually collapsed from its 2006 peak...Zogby's wide-ranging survey offers some fascinating new evidence, however. Public opinion survey research in the Arab world always needs to be treated with caution

For an artifact with such an awesome legacy, the Cyrus Cylinder is remarkably unprepossessing. It looks like a small loaf of rye bread from which someone has broken off a chunk. Yet this nine-inch long piece of baked clay inscribed with cuneiform script — which begins a five-city tour of the United States in Washington this week -- has inspired religious and political thinkers from ancient times through the drafters of the US Constitution and the founders of modern-day Israel.

Argo won for Best Picture, of course, but in my view it merited an additional Oscar. And so did the far more controversial Zero Dark Thirty. Consider that Hollywood hands out awards for everything from “Sound Mixing” to “Best Picture”. But over the decades no Oscar category existed to honor movies for intellectual or political integrity. Perhaps that reflects, to be cynical, the recognition that in any given year there’d be too few nominees to fill out the category. But this year that was not the case. It was a banner year for Hollywood integrity.