The chief of Iran's elite Quds Force has ridiculed calls for Hamas to be disarmed and urged the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza to "turn the land and skies into hell" for Israel.

Major General Qassem Suleimani's message to militant factions resisting Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip was published late Wednesday by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

North Korea has denounced allegations that it supplied missiles to Hamas and material support to Hizbullah as "sheer fiction" and a "sinister" effort to link Pyongyang to Middle East disputes.

The rebuttal from the foreign ministry was carried in a statement late Monday by the North's official KCNA news agency.

A fighter jet crashed in southern Russia on Sunday, killing the pilot, the head of the air force told Russian news agencies, blaming a technical fault.

"An accident took place and the pilot died," General Viktor Bondarev said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Iranians rallied nationwide on Friday in a show of support for Palestinians as arch-foe Israel pursued its deadly campaign against the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrations were held in Tehran and more than 700 towns and cities across the country on the last day of prayer and rest of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, state television reported.

More negotiations are the only solution to Iran's decade-long nuclear standoff with the West, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.

Rouhani's remarks were his first on the four-month extension until November of talks with world powers agreed in Vienna last week after the two sides said progress made so far was still short of a final breakthrough.

Iran has eliminated all its most sensitive nuclear material in line with an interim deal struck with world powers, a new U.N. atomic agency report showed Monday.

Days after a deadline to reach a lasting nuclear deal was pushed back four months, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was continuing to comply with its international commitments, in a report seen by AFP.

The mother of a former U.S. Marine imprisoned in Iran on espionage charges pleaded for President Barack Obama to seek his release, as the rival nations seek a historic nuclear deal.

In a letter released just as the United States, Iran and five other powers late Friday agreed to extend a temporary deal on Tehran's nuclear program, the mother of Amir Hekmati asked Obama to take advantage of the cooperative atmosphere to press her son's case.

Marathon talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna ended Saturday after negotiators gave themselves four more months to try and bridge major gaps and strike a historic nuclear deal.

Pope Francis called Friday for justice to be done in the unsolved bombing at a Jewish center in Argentina that killed 85 people and wounded 300 others two decades ago.

"Twenty years on from the tragedy at the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation (AMIA), I want to express my closeness with the Argentine Jewish community and all the victims' families, whether Jewish or Christian," the pope said in a recorded message played at commemorations of the anniversary.

World powers are strongly considering delaying a Sunday deadline to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear program until November, Russian media reported, citing Moscow's negotiator at the Vienna talks.

"The dominant point of view is that we need a new control date in November. That is, a year from reaching the Geneva agreement," RIA Novosti quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday.