The United States on Thursday reaffirmed its vow to cut aid to violence-wracked South Sudan if the government of President Salva Kiir is overthrown in a coup.

Troops loyal to Kiir have been battling forces allied to former vice president Riek Machar in a wave of ethnic violence that has left thousands dead, according to the United Nations.

The United States is pressing for U.N. Security Council condemnation of heightened attacks in Syria in a move that could reopen divisions over the war, diplomats said Wednesday.

U.S. diplomats have proposed a draft council statement that would express "outrage" over government air strikes on the city of Aleppo.

Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman does not represent the U.S. government, a U.S. official insisted Tuesday, as he prepares to return this week to Pyongyang only days after the execution of a former North Korean official.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf stressed that Washington was focused on working with allies to rein in North Korea's nuclear program.

The execution of the North Korean leader's uncle is "an ominous sign" raising concerns about instability in a nation pursuing a nuclear arms drive, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Sunday.

Pyongyang on Thursday executed the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un charging him with corruption and plotting to overthrow the state.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi on Friday slammed a U.S. move to expand its sanctions blacklist, saying it went against the spirit of a landmark deal agreed last month.

"America's move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal," under which world powers agreed not to impose any new sanctions, Araqchi told the Fars news agency.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, who is currently on a trip to the U.S. capital Washington, is expected to visit the Islamic Republic of Iran, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the invitation was delivered to Gemayel by Iran's ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi.

Ukrainian demonstrators celebrated holding three weeks of protests Thursday over the government's decision to reject a historic EU deal, as the United States threatened sanctions after a failed police raid on the protest barricades.

Tensions in the capital eased after a showdown in the early hours of Wednesday, when riot police tried to drive the protest camp out of the iconic Independence Square in the ex-Soviet country's deepest political crisis in a decade.

Delaying the signing of a U.S.-Afghan security pact poses more of a psychological than logistical problem because it jeopardizes Afghan troop "confidence," the U.S. military's top officer said Wednesday.

U.S. and NATO officials have been pressing Kabul to sign the agreement without further delay or else risk a complete withdrawal of Western troops after 2014 and drastically reduced international aid.

The United States was Tuesday seeking an explanation from Bahraini authorities after a US embassy observer was expelled from the trial of a prominent rights activist.

A representative of the U.S. embassy was asked to leave Monday's court hearing for Shiite activist Nabeel Rajab, a State Department official confirmed.

Former cricketer Imran Khan's party claimed a "tactical success" Wednesday after the U.S. military suspended shipments of equipment out of Afghanistan via a key Pakistani route, citing protests that posed a risk to truck drivers.

Activists in northwest Pakistan, some armed with clubs, have been forcibly searching trucks in an effort to halt NATO supplies in protest over U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.