Argentina's former president Carlos Menem went on trial Thursday with 12 co-accused charged with obstructing the investigation into the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, which killed 85 people.

The unsolved bombing, the deadliest terror attack in Argentine history, still haunts the country two decades later. 

Iran and Turkey must work with one another to root out the threat of extremism in the region, President Hassan Rouhani told his Turkish counterpart, the official IRNA news agency reported. 

The two countries "should achieve a joint plan and a practical solution, with each other's help, for uprooting terrorism in the region," Rouhani told Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a Wednesday night telephone call. 

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima underscored the importance of the Iran nuclear deal and disarmament in general, as Japan marked the attack's 70th anniversary.

"Needless to say, it's a very, very powerful reminder of not just the impact of war in a lasting way on people, on countries, but it also underscores the importance of the agreement we reached with Iran to reduce the possibility of more nuclear weapons," Kerry said on the sidelines of a regional diplomatic gathering in Kuala Lumpur. 

President Barack Obama launched a blistering denunciation of opposition to his Iran nuclear deal Wednesday, arguing that none of the criticism stands up to scrutiny and warning that if Congress blocks the accord it will put the U.S. on the path to another Middle East war.

"The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war," Obama said in an address at American University in Washington. "Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon."

In 1963 U.S. President John F. Kennedy traveled the short distance from the White House to American University to muster support for diplomatic engagement with nuclear foe the Soviet Union.

On Wednesday, at the same spot, President Barack Obama will echo Kennedy's entreaty, arguing for a nuclear deal with Iran -- a country described by his predecessor as part of an "axis of evil."

The United Nations on Wednesday called for the unconditional release of an Iranian spiritual leader who was sentenced to death at the weekend after being convicted of spreading "corruption on earth".

Mohammed Ali Taheri, who founded a spiritual movement and practiced alternative medicine, was sentenced on Saturday by Iran's Revolutionary Court, according to a statement from the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

The Maronite Bishops Council condemned on Wednesday the ongoing vacuum in the presidency, reiterating Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's call for officials to name their final presidential candidates.

The council urged after its monthly meeting “politicians to adhere to the constitution and head to parliament to elect a new head of state.”

President Barack Obama has warned that any possible rejection by the Congress of the Iran nuclear deal, would force the U.S. to attack Iran, a move that could lead to a Hizbulalh retaliation against Israel.

"It would be destructive both to the U.S. and to Israel," Obama told Jewish leaders on Tuesday, according to Israeli media reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at "disinformation" from supporters of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday, personally calling on U.S. Jewish groups to thwart the White House-backed agreement.

In a webcast hosted by Jewish American groups and broadcast to 10,000 people, Netanyahu hit out at unnamed opponents who misrepresented the deal and Israel's stance against it.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem arrived in Iran Tuesday to meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss the situation in the region, the official IRNA news agency reported.

His visit comes with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, President Vladimir Putin's special Middle East representative, also in Tehran.