Thousands of Iranians rallied to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 hostage-taking at the U.S. embassy on Wednesday, as hardliners alleged Western "infiltration" following a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
A US fighter plane and a Russian fighter plane flew in the same airspace over Syria on Tuesday, testing new safety protocols designed to avoid air clashes between the two countries.
China's vice president Li Yuanchao pledged infrastructure and security support for Afghanistan on Tuesday, signing several deals during a high-level visit to Kabul.
A passenger jet travelling from the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh to the Russian city of St Petersburg had crashed in central Sinai.
The recent efforts of US Secretary of State John Kerry has achieved relative calm to the wave of tension between Israel and the Palestinians, especially in east Jerusalem, but his efforts has not yet found a fundamental solution to the crisis, according to analysts.
It will be the first time that Iran - an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - attends such talks on the Syrian crisis.
Saudi Arabia would like to see a ceasefire in Yemen to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid, but it does not trust the Houthi rebels to abide by such a truce.
Russia said on Saturday it was ready to provide air support for Western-backed moderate rebels battling both jihadists and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Moscow presses on with its diplomatic offensive over the conflict.
Israel said on Sunday that one of its citizens, probably a member of the Muslim Arab minority, had illegally flown to rebellion-wracked Syria by using a paraglider to cross the Golan Heights frontier.
The United States on Saturday proposed steps, including 24-hour video surveillance, to end weeks of violence over a Jerusalem site holy to Muslims and Jews.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Russian airstrikes in Syria curbed the activities of the terrorist groups in the war-torn country, according to the state news agency SANA.
Western countries have taken pragmatic steps to start the process of lifting their sanctions against Iran while Iran has responded positively and voiced the hope that some of those sanctions can be lifted this year.