Vice President Joe Biden and senior Obama administration officials convinced a number of senators to hold off on another round of Iran sanctions as Western powers test Tehran's willingness to scale back its nuclear aims.

The full-court press Thursday didn't sway every senator who participated in the hours-long, closed-door briefing, but the chances that the Senate Banking Committee would draft new, punitive measures next week just as negotiations occurred in Geneva diminished significantly.

Iran's foreign minister expressed hope Thursday that upcoming negotiations about the country's disputed nuclear program will lead to a quick understanding with world powers.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran would approach crunch nuclear talks in Geneva next week "with good faith" and "with determination to reach understanding and with hope to reach an understanding at an early stage".

In the impoverished Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods of Lebanon's second city Tripoli, the war in neighboring Syria has aggravated decades-old sectarian and political tensions.

Regional and local powers have taken advantage of the situation, arming poor fighters in the neighborhoods to fight a proxy war over Syria.

Human rights activists accused Iraqi forces Wednesday of carrying out a bloody attack on a camp of Iranian exiles in which 52 people were shot dead.

A German rights groups working with a Washington-based lawyer claimed their 70-page report "confirms the direct involvement of the government of Iraq in the attack" on September 1.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit France next week to deliver a speech at UNESCO, ahead of nuclear talks in Geneva with world powers, media reported Wednesday.

Zarif, the first Iranian foreign minister to visit France in years, will also hold talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris, the official IRNA news agency said.

Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran has never stopped 20 percent uranium enrichment, denying earlier claims of a temporarily halt, parliament's website reported Wednesday.

"Twenty percent uranium and nuclear plates are being produced inside the country and there has never been a halt in the production trend," Salehi was quoted as saying.

Iranian security forces have killed in a fresh clash four members of an extremist rebel group behind an attack that left 14 Iranian border guards dead, a top border guard commander said Tuesday.

"We clashed with Jaish-ul Adl and killed four of them," the Fars news agency quoted brigadier general Hossein Zolfaqari, commander of Iran's border guards, as saying.

Iranian forces have killed in a fresh clash four members of an extremist rebel group that killed 14 Iranian border guards Friday, a top military commander said Tuesday.

"We clashed with Jaish-ul Adl (bandits) and killed four of them," the Fars news agency quoted brigadier general Hossein Zolfaqari, commander of Iran's border guards, as saying.

Japan's foreign minister will go to Iran next month, he said Tuesday, in the latest sign of Tehran's rapidly thawing relationship with the Western world.

Fumio Kishida said he plans a three day trip from November 9, the day after Iranian negotiators wrap up talks with world powers in Geneva over the country's nuclear program.

An Iranian court has sentenced filmmaker and actress Pegah Ahangarani to 18 months in prison, her mother told ISNA news agency Monday, apparently for her social activities, political comments and interviews with foreign media.

"She has been sentenced to 18 months in the trial court," Manijeh Hekmat, who is also a director, told ISNA without giving further details.