The European Union called on the Iraqi government Saturday to investigate last week's rocket attack on a camp holding exiled Iranian dissidents which left several people dead and many injured.

A statement from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's said she condemned "in the strongest terms" the December 26 attack at Camp Hurriya near Baghdad airport, housing dissidents awaiting to be transferred elsewhere.

Iran's Arak heavy water reactor is incapable of producing plutonium for use in a nuclear weapon, a major fear of the West, Tehran's atomic chief said Friday.

"The Arak research reactor cannot produce plutonium that could be used to make an atomic bomb since the plutonium will remain in the reactor's core for a year," Ali Akbar Salehi told the ISNA news agency.

The International community condemned on Friday the “cowardly” assassination of former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah in a car bombing in Beirut, describing him as a “wise” and “tolerant” man.

“Sad news from Beirut,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said via twitter.

A senior Iranian official said Thursday that the ancient citadel of Bam, destroyed by an earthquake a decade ago, will again be a major tourist attraction by 2016, media reported.

"Over the next two or three years, Arg'e Bam will be rebuilt so it again becomes a major tourist attractions" Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Ali Najafi, head of Iran's heritage organisation as saying.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday reshuffled his Cabinet after three key ministers resigned over a sweeping corruption and bribery scandal that has targeted his allies and rattled his government.

Erdogan replaced Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Erdogan Bayraktar, the minister for the environment and urban planning. All three men's sons were detained as part of the corruption investigation. They all deny any wrongdoing.

Iranian lawmakers presented a bill to the parliament's presiding board which could oblige the government to enrich uranium to 60 percent if new sanctions are imposed, media reported Wednesday.

"If the other negotiating parties ratchet up the sanctions, impose new sanctions or violate our country's nuclear right, this bill will immediately oblige the government to... launch the Arak heavy water reactor and produce 60 percent enriched uranium," ISNA news agency quoted lawmaker Mehdi Mousavi-nejad as saying.

Turkey's state-owned Halkbank, whose chief executive was arrested in connection with a sweeping graft investigation, said on Monday it complied with the law when doing business with sanctions-hit Iran.

"Our bank's business transactions are regularly audited by relevant authorities," the bank said in a statement.

Iran has criticized European parliamentarians for meeting leading dissidents during a visit this month to the Islamic republic, media reports said on Sunday.

During a six-day visit that ended on Tuesday, the eight-member European Parliament delegation met rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and film-maker Jafar Panahi, who both won the Sakharov prize for human rights in 2012.

Technical talks between Iran and world powers on how to implement a landmark nuclear deal clinched last month are making progress, but slowly, a senior Iranian negotiator said Saturday.

The negotiations began Thursday in Geneva on the accord reached in the Swiss city that is aimed at buying time for a diplomatic solution to a decade-long standoff over Iran's nuclear drive.

The U.S. Senate has urged Iran to free jailed members of the Bahai faith, raising human rights concerns as President Barack Obama pursues diplomacy to curtail Tehran's nuclear program.

In a resolution approved unanimously Friday amid a flurry of activity before a holiday break, the Senate called on Iran to free seven Bahai leaders among other detained members of the religion, including 12 educators.