iran

The film was inspiring and profound, and presented the true colors of citizen diplomacy as a connecting force between people of different nations, cultural systems, and religious identities.

In the recent days, controversial Turkey-Iran relations come to the fore. According to Turkish Today’s Zaman Newspaper, Iran offered to resume nuclear talks with the United States and other world powers on Nov. 15 after pushing for a shift of venue to Turkey. “The P5+1 -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- had earlier offered talks on Nov. 15-17 in Vienna.

Sometime in the next few weeks, if the parties can agree on a place and date convenient to all sides, Iran and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, known as the "P5+1," will meet for the first time since October 2009 to revive diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program.

As part of a continuing initiative aimed at improving understanding between Christians and Muslims, a Vatican delegation will be taking part in a three-day discussion on religion and society in Iran.

"Cultural revolution is the main source of the Islamic Republic of Iran's power," Deputy Head of the Joint Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said. "If we didn't enjoy such a soft power, enemies would not launch so many invasions and they would not do such a vast lineup against us," Jazayeri added.

A senior Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani, has discussed religious issues with his supporters on Facebook and Google Talk. A statement posted on the website of Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani, who has come under pressure from the Iranian authorities over his postelection stances, says the "unprecedented" online discussion took place on November 4 with a number of Internet users inside and outside of Iran.

On the 31st anniversary of the hostage-taking of U.S. diplomats in Iran, a dozen of Iranian student activists and members of the country's largest reformist student group have called on U.S. President Barack Obama to follow up the case of current and former student activists who are in jail in Iran. In a letter to the U.S. president, the student activists call those in jail "student hostages."

November 5, 2010

Turkey is not wavering in the slightest from its pro-European course. Nevertheless, as a trading nation with a dynamic economy that is the living proof of the fact that Islam, a secular political landscape and a parliamentary democracy are indeed compatible, it has in recent times rediscovered its Arab neighbours.

Pages