Israel had a critical role in stopping a deal with Iran on reining in its nuclear program from going ahead last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

The deal would have "effectively left Iran as a threshold nuclear power," he told a Washington think-tank in a recorded speech.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will visit Tehran this week for a conference on combating extremism that will also be attended by his Iraqi counterpart, Iranian state media said Sunday.

Muallem was set to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who has already arrived in Tehran, as well as Iran's diplomacy chief Mohammad Javad Zarif at Monday's conference, said IRNA news agency.

Iranian students called on President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday to free two opposition leaders held under house arrest for years, Fars news agency reported.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi -- both regime insiders turned critics -- have been kept incommunicado since February 2011 after leading months of protests alleging fraud in their defeat by Rouhani's hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq stressed that Hizbullah is going ahead with internal talks in Lebanon “out of its keenness on national interests,” reported the National News Agency on Sunday.

He said in reference to the expected dialogue between Hizbullah and the Mustaqbal Movement: “Dialogue will help avert strife.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he was "deeply disappointed" by reports that a U.S. journalist jailed in Iran had been charged and denied bail more than four months after his arrest. 

Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post bureau chief in Tehran who holds dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, was charged Saturday after a lengthy court appearance, the Post reports. 

Iran's telecommunications minister has said his technicians are developing a system to identify any Internet user in the country at the moment of log-on, the ISNA news agency reported Saturday.

"Because of our efforts, in future when people want to use the Internet they will be identified, and there will be no web surfer whose identity we do not know," Mahmoud Vaezi said, without elaborating on how this would technically be done.

A Chinese man accused of smuggling "highly sensitive" parts for nuclear production to Iran was extradited to Boston on Friday where he will face federal charges.

Sihai Cheng, charged alongside an Iranian man and two Iranian businesses, allegedly exported pressure sensors to Iran that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons, a government statement said.

The detention of the Washington Post's bureau chief in Tehran has been extended for up to 60 days, the paper said Wednesday, quoting his family.

Jason Rezaian and his wife Yeganeh Salehi, also a journalist, were arrested in July. Salehi was freed on bail in October.

Moscow is ready to host a conference on ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Sudan on Wednesday.

"There should be a conference to remove weapons of mass destruction and put in place an agreement to make the Middle East a region free of nuclear weapons," Lavrov said before attending a forum on cooperation between Russia and the Arab League.

The world is no longer beating the "drum of war" against Iran, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, citing the direct benefit of the government's nuclear talks with the West.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said the decision to restart negotiations and seek a deal over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme had reduced tension and would not be reversed.