The Sesame synchrotron opened its doors in Jordan this week, allowing scientists who would normally find it difficult to meet because of the troubled relations between their countries, to carry out collaborative research at a local facility.The Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, situated 35 kilometres north of the Jordanian capital Amman, unites Cyprus, Iran, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey – countries usually hostile to each other. The other founding members include Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.

The first Youth Summit of the Islamic Development Bank Group Annual Meeting brought together youth leaders, influential thinkers, policy makers, entrepreneurs and international development policy experts to discuss critical matters of relevance to youth in IDBG member countries. The delegates at the two-day Youth Summit, begins today, drew attention to the key role of youth in overcoming development issues in areas ranging from education, employment, entrepreneurship, networking to financial inclusion.

Any peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will require dialogue, mutual trust, and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. The "Palestine in Hebrew" Facebook channel demonstrates that the Palestinian government in the West Bank is attempting to foster such dialogue and understating with Israeli citizens. While the profile is but one element in a larger Palestinian outreach initiative, it exemplifies how digital tools, and social media, can be used by governments to overcome the limitations of traditional diplomacy and practice public diplomacy. 

The Saudi foreign ministry published an infographic that shows the size of aid which the Saudi kingdom has provided to Yemen since April 2015 until April 2017. Saudi Arabia has provided $8.2 billion during this phase. The amount has been divided on different sectors. The development sector received the biggest share worth $2.9 billion while aid to the legitimate Yemeni government was worth $2.2 billion.

All the panelists asserted that media should exert efforts to enhance the image of Arabs. Arabs needs to have long-term partnership with the US in various fields. For example, there should be exchange of visits in the field of education. Arab governments should provide scholarships to young Americans to study and know the Arab culture and to have experience of their life, they suggested, noting that many Arab students receive scholarship in the US.