Iran rejected Friday allegations it was interfering in Yemen by backing Shiite rebels there, accusing Saudi Arabia of seeking to absolve itself of responsibility in the war-torn Arabian Peninsula country.

Riyadh's new Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Thursday criticized what he called Iran's "negative" role in the Yemen conflict, and repeated claims Tehran was providing arms and funding to anti-government forces.

Iran is a destabilizing force that must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, top U.S. diplomat John Kerry said in Saudi Arabia Thursday, aiming to calm Riyadh's worries.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors fear Tehran might be able to develop an atomic bomb despite an international accord being drafted which aims to prevent that.

Iran has released the Maersk Tigris cargo vessel seized by its patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz last week over a business dispute, Iranian authorities said Thursday.

They said the ship was given permission to leave after Denmark's Maersk group, which chartered the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, promised to abide by an Iranian court decision.

The U.S. Navy has halted a mission to accompany American-flagged vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said Wednesday, in a sign of reduced tensions in the strategic waterway. 

The protection mission had been ordered last week after a Marshall Islands-flagged ship was seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guard forces and a U.S.-flagged vessel was harassed.  

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday instructed his country's negotiators to steer clear of "humiliation" in nuclear talks with world powers that resume next week in Vienna.

"The negotiators must respect the red lines and tolerate neither pressure nor humiliation, or threats," he said in a speech to teachers carried on his website.

A husband and wife were killed as a missile struck a Saudi border region across from war-torn Yemen, official media said on Wednesday.

They died on Tuesday when a missile hit their building in the Jazan region, civil defense Major Yahya al-Qahtani was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Negotiations seeking a definitive accord on Iran's nuclear program will resume on May 12 in Vienna, the European Union said Tuesday.

EU negotiator Helga Schmid and her Iranian counterparts Abbas Araghchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi "will resume their work on 12 May in Vienna," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement, adding that they would be joined by the political leaders of the other world powers involved in the negotiations on May 15.

Indonesia will stop sending new domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, reports said Tuesday, after the recent execution of two Indonesian women in Saudi Arabia angered Jakarta.

Other countries affected by the ban are Saudi Arabia -- a major destination for Indonesian maids -- United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Egypt.

Hairstyles of a spiky and unorthodox nature have reportedly been banned in Iran because they imply devil-worship, while tattoos and other male bodily adornments are also being outlawed.

Jagged haircuts have become fashionable among all strata of Iran's youthful population in recent years, but have divided opinion and been deemed by the authorities as western and un-Islamic.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Monday it was not up to the country's police to deliver Islamic guidance, distancing himself from efforts to involve law enforcement in religion.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, last week faced criticism from the Islamic republic's clerical establishment and conservative lawmakers for insisting the police had no role to play in religion.