An Iranian journalist for a reformist news outlet who travelled to Lausanne to report on nuclear talks has applied for political asylum in Switzerland, the foreign ministry in Tehran said.

Amir Hossein Motaghi, who worked for the Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA), was sacked on March 24 after his bosses learned of his defection, a ministry statement said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad says he shares the same goals as Iran and Russia when it comes to the brutal war tearing apart his country.

Assad, speaking on PBS television in excerpts of an interview airing Monday, insisted that close allies Russia and Iran "want to have balance in the world."

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday enlisted his predecessor John F. Kennedy in defense of contentious nuclear talks with Iran that are now coming down to the wire.

Speaking at the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston, Obama said the negotiators led by Secretary of State John Kerry were "standing up for a principle that Ted and his brother, President Kennedy, believed in so strongly."

China is "cautiously optimistic" that global powers can reach a deal with Iran to pare back its nuclear program amid intense negotiations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday.

"The key issues are quite clear and the preferred approach of a solution is emerging," Wang told reporters as he left the luxury lakeside hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the talks are being held.

A Toronto-based filmmaker with Canadian residency has been arrested in Iran, his family said Monday.

Mostafa Azizi, 53, returned to his birth country in February to care for his ailing father, and was considering moving back when he was arrested on February 1, his son Arash told Agence France-Presse.

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen were killed by a U.S. drone in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Iranian state media said Monday, in a report that was denied by the Pentagon.

The official IRNA news agency said the two had been posted to Iraq as advisers in the war against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and that they died in the drone strike on March 23.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned world powers on Monday that any nuclear deal they strike with Iran would be seen as a reward for Tehran's alleged "aggression" in Yemen.

"The agreement being formulated in Lausanne sends a message that there is no price for aggression and on the contrary -- that Iran's aggression is to be rewarded," he said, referring to Iranian support for Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday insisted he was still planning to visit Iran next week, despite a war-of-words with the Islamic republic triggered by the Yemen crisis and his accusations Tehran was seeking domination of the region.

Majority Sunni Muslim Turkey has said it supports the Saudi-led operation against Iran-allied Huthi Shiite rebels in Yemen to restore order in the country.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday offered Britain's "firm political support" to Saudi Arabia over its air strikes on rebel camps in Yemen.

Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke for the first time since the monarch came to the throne in January, with the prime minister giving his clear backing to the action.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out on Saturday at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, despite confirming that the dialogue will continue to preserve Lebanon's interests.

“The Lebanese listened tonight (Friday) to a storm of hatred against Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in response to the Decisive Storm military intervention that aims to prevent the Iranian infiltration to Yemen,” Hariri said on his account via Twitter.