Head of the Syrian National Council Abdel Basset Sayda demanded that Hizbullah and Iran refrain from meddling in the Syrian revolt against President Bashar Assad and his regime, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily on Sunday.

He urged Hizbullah to “prepare for the post-Assad phase.”

The United States believes Iran was behind a major cyberattack on Saudi Arabia's state oil company and a Qatari gas firm, a former U.S. official who has worked on cybersecurity issues said Friday.

In a major cybersecurity speech on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a veiled warning to Tehran that Washington is ready to take preemptive action to protect U.S. computer networks, the former official said.

The United States believes Iran was behind a major cyberattack on Saudi Arabia's state oil company and a Qatari gas firm, a former U.S. official who has worked on cybersecurity issues said Friday.

In a major cybersecurity speech on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a veiled warning to Tehran that Washington is ready to take preemptive action to protect U.S. computer networks, the former official said.

Iran is still "a good way away" from acquiring a nuclear weapon, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday, insisting the United States would stop Tehran before it was too late.

President Barack Obama's number two came under attack during testy exchanges on Iran with Republican opposite number Paul Ryan in a one-off vice presidential election debate less than four week from election day.

Russia is the only player able to halt Iran's nuclear program without the use of force or crippling sanctions, Israel's parliamentary speaker told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.

Speaking on a visit to Moscow, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin told his host that Russia's close ties with Iran gave it the "opportunity and the obligation" to quash Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Three Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with armed drug traffickers near the border with Pakistan, Iranian media reported on Thursday, citing a border official.

Two drug traffickers were also killed in the clash near the region of Koshtegan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, Colonel Mehdi Mansourzadeh said.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Yukiya Amano, will visit Iran to discuss the dimensions of Tehran's nuclear program, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was reported as saying on Wednesday.

"The visit of Mr. Amano to Tehran is in line with discussions about possible military dimensions" of the program, Salehi said, quoted by IRNA state news agency.

Iran's foreign ministry warned on Tuesday it could look at cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates because of a festering dispute over three Gulf islands claimed by both countries.

"If making such anti-Iranian claims reaches a level that national interests lie in reducing or severing political ties... (such a move) will be implemented after consultations with experts," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the parliamentary news website icana.ir.

Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make an atomic bomb within two to four months and then would need an additional eight to 10 months to build the device, experts said Monday.

The authors of a new report on Iran's nuclear program say Tehran has made progress in its uranium enrichment effort but that the United States and U.N. weapons inspectors would be able to detect any attempt at a "breakout" -- at least for the moment.

Mitt Romney will call for a U.S. change of course in the Middle East on Monday, saying President Barack Obama's muddled strategy has failed to confront the challenges of extremism.

The Republican White House hopeful, offering a foreign policy vision that he and his campaign believe differs sharply from Obama's, said he would keep Iran in check, chase terrorists in Libya, put conditions on U.S. aid to Egypt and help arm Syrian rebels.