CENTRE for RELIGIOUS PLURALISM in the MIDDLE EAST

Pontiff stresses Iran's "important role" in the region during landmark meeting with President Rouhani. Pope Francis has urged Iran to back peace efforts in the Middle East as the country's emergence from international isolation took a step forward with President Hassan Rouhani's first visit to the Vatican.

The United Nations Security Council, Iranian Foreign Ministry and Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, condemned a terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani concluded the second day of his European tour with a 40 minute meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in which the Pope raised the question of the “promotion of human dignity and freedom of religion”—sensitive topics for the regime, which has been under fire for its human-rights record.

In a meeting with Cardinal Peter Turkson, the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Hashem Hoseyni-Bushehri, the director of Islamic Seminaries across Iran, stressed upon the relations between Muslim and Christian leaders, saying they are a necessity for the current world and counted oppression, corruption, irreligiousness and anti-spirituality approaches as some of the joint challenges of both religions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that there is no difference between performance of men and women in various “state” and “executive” jobs.

UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation was a key issue which brought officials at the UNESCO and the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicraft Organization of Iran together in Tehran on Sunday to inspire the private sector to preserve the Iranian cultural heritage.