Iran hit back Thursday at U.S. charges that the trial of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian on spying charges lacked transparency, with Tehran insisting its judiciary is independent.  

Washington has called for the release of Rezaian, who went on trial behind closed doors on Tuesday, with National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan condemning a "complete lack of transparency" in the case.

Two Saudi border guards have been killed and five others wounded by shellfire on the frontier with Yemen, official media reported.

The deaths occurred when "military missiles from Yemen" struck their position at Zahran South in the Asir border region on Wednesday, Riyadh's interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday that France would oppose a nuclear deal with Iran if it did not allow inspections of military sites.

An agreement "will not be accepted by France if it is not clear that verifications can be made at all Iranian facilities, including military sites," Fabius told parliament.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Wednesday that Iran and Russia would never give up their support for his regime in the face of a four-year-old armed revolt.

"I assure you that the relationship between Syria, the Russian Federation, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is much deeper than some people think," Muallem said at a press conference with his visiting Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday praised the work of his country's nuclear negotiators after they came under heavy criticism from the conservative camp in parliament.

The negotiators, who resumed talks with world powers in Vienna on Tuesday, "are working, making efforts, breaking sweat... to obtain what is in the interests of the country and the regime", he said in a meeting with members of parliament.

Talks between Iran and world powers aimed at finalizing a deal over Tehran's nuclear program could go beyond a June 30 deadline, a senior Iranian negotiator said Wednesday.

"We are not at the point where we can say that negotiations will be completed quickly -- they will continue until the deadline and could continue beyond that," Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran said on Tuesday it had foiled a cyber-attack on the Islamic republic's oil ministry, and that those behind the hacking attempt were based in the United States.

The Fars news agency cited Brigadier General Kamal Hadianfar, head of the cyber police, as saying the unit had thwarted "the hackers' attack on the oil ministry."

Iran's foreign minister held talks in neutral Oman Tuesday about ending the conflict in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is waging a bombing campaign against Tehran-backed rebels, Iranian media reported.

Oman, which maintains good relations with Iran, is the only one of the six Gulf Arab states that has not joined the coalition air war in its western neighbor.

An overwhelming majority of Iranians want peace with the rest of the world, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday, defending the nuclear negotiations under way with major powers.

"Despite a small minority that speak loudly, the vast majority of the population are in favor of peace, reconciliation and constructive agreement with the world," Rouhani said during a televised speech in Shahriyar, west of Tehran.

Moscow and Tehran have concluded talks on the delivery of Russian S-300 missiles to Iran which should take place "quite" soon, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Monday.

"The negotiations on the subject have ended in success. I estimate that the S-300 delivery will take place in quite a short time," Amir-Abdollahian said in Moscow.