A modest proposal for how Lebanon’s garbage could bring an end to the fiercest rivalry in the Middle East. What’s the connection between the garbage piling up on the streets of Lebanon and the war in Syria? The geopolitical rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

More than 50 prominent Iranian dissidents, political reformers and other civil society activists have written an open letter to the people of the United States, urging them to lobby members of Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal.

Maryam Faghih Imani, the daughter of Sayed Kamal Faghih Imani, a senior Iranian Ayatollah, "came to Israel to convey a message of reconciliation and dialogue among peoples," the statement reads. Imani and Peres will meet at the Peres Center for Peace to discuss projects to promote peace between nations in the Middle East, and the development of cross-border initiatives.

“One of the policies adopted by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in the new period is cultural diplomacy, since we believe culture is able to make the societies closer to one another and book first for why the opportunities for the active cultural diplomacy." [...] "We think of attending Moscow event as an overture to our next activities in the other international book fairs, as we try to turn these activities into the landmarks for our cultural exchanges. 

Human rights defender Kouhyar Goudarzi says the fact that Iran stopped backing Hamas during nuclear talks should be reason enough for Israelis to support nuclear deal.

If Congress rejects the deal, we will project globally an America that is internally divided, unreliable, and dismissive of the views of those with whom we built Iran’s sanctions architecture in the first place. I and other American diplomats around the world draw every day on our nation’s soft power, which greatly enhances our ability to mobilize other countries to our side.

U.S. museum visitors, who may not be intimately familiar with the Arab world and its gender dynamics, stand to gain a new understanding from viewing works by Arab women artists. The same would go for works by artists in any region that viewers don't know well. But there is a particular need within the Arab world for outsiders to see "beyond news headlines and night-vision photographs," says Sarah Hassan, a New York writer.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, will formally reopen the UK embassy in Tehran on Sunday, nearly four years after it was shut down as a result of a mob attack.The Iranian embassy in London will be reopened at the same time, as part of a rapid warming of relations between Iran and the west following the agreement reached on 14 July on the future of the Iranian nuclear