Iran launched extensive military drills on Thursday, local media reported, in a show of strength stretching several hundred kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Aden.

The exercises are set to last six days and involve ballistic missile and drone testing, according to military officials.

The French foreign ministry's director for North Africa and the Middle East affairs is expected to travel to Riyadh, Tehran and the Vatican in an attempt to resolve the Lebanese presidential deadlock, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said Jean-François Girault will travel to Saudi Arabia on January 5. He is then scheduled to make a trip to Iran and later head to the Vatican for talks with top officials on Lebanon's presidential crisis.

Iran's visiting Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Monday that Hizbullah is an active movement and plays a positive role in the region.

“Some movements are more effective than states. Hizbullah is an example. It plays a positive role in the region,” he said.

China on Friday criticized a call by the United Nations for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over its human rights record.

"It is our long-standing position that countries should engage in constructive dialogue and negotiations to deal with differences on human rights, and we oppose politicizing or using the issue of human rights to put pressure on other countries," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing.

An Iranian asylum-seeker on hunger strike for almost seven weeks after being denied a visa in Australia has asked not to be revived if he loses consciousness, his lawyer said Friday.

John Lawrence said the 33-year-old had been in Australia for more than four years, but was now in legal limbo after his application for a protection visa was denied and he has refused to return to Iran.

Iran will hold widespread naval drills extending to the Gulf of Aden in December, its navy chief said Thursday, asking foreign forces to "leave the area" to avoid incidents.

The week-long exercises -- the first on this scale since the election of reformist President Hassan Rouhani in June last year -- are set to start on December 25 and take place between the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Aden, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari was quoted as saying by the official Irna news agency.

Iran welcomed as "useful" Thursday its first round of nuclear talks with the major powers since the two sides gave themselves another seven months to strike a deal.

"We had intensive and useful discussions," Iran's lead negotiator, deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, told state television after a two-hour meeting in Geneva on Wednesday.

Iran repeatedly warned Australia about the criminal past of the perpetrator of the Sydney cafe siege and called for him to be kept under surveillance, top officials in Tehran said.

Man Haron Monis, the Iranian-born self-styled cleric who died along with two of the people he had taken hostage, was being investigated over fraud charges when he fled in 1996, police said. 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday ordered an urgent inquiry into why a deranged Islamic gunman was not under surveillance and how he obtained citizenship, as security was stepped up after a fatal cafe siege.

Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, 50, had a history of extremism and violence and was on bail for a string of charges, including sexual offences and abetting the murder of his ex-wife.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Tony Blinken as deputy secretary of state on Tuesday, installing a seasoned insider who has served as a close advisor to President Barack Obama.

Blinken, the outgoing deputy national security advisor, was confirmed on a vote of 55-38, becoming Secretary of State John Kerry's number two.