A Christian U.S. pastor arrived home Wednesday after being deported from Iran for staging a protest outside a Tehran prison, denouncing what he called the "belligerent" Islamic regime.

Pastor Eddie Romero, from southern California, was arrested Monday and held for over 24 hours in the Iranian capital before being put on a plane out of the country.

Iran's foreign ministry warned Malaysia Wednesday against executing two Iranian women convicted of trafficking methamphetamine into the Southeast Asian country.

"The execution of two Iranian women in Malaysia will have negative effect on our bilateral ties," Hassan Ghashghavi, deputy foreign minister in charge of consular affairs, was quoted as saying by official news agency IRNA.

Iran has decided to spare the life of a convicted drug trafficker who survived a hanging, media reports on Wednesday quoted Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as saying.

The reports follow calls from within Iran and a appeals from international rights groups against the man found alive in a morgue facing execution for a second time.

With nuclear talks between Iran and western powers gathering steam, the Obama administration will likely face an uphill battle to convince Congress to back any deal rolling back its tough sanctions regime.

For years, U.S. lawmakers have carefully crafted legislation aimed at reining in Iran's suspect nuclear program and moves to provide even some sanctions relief are likely to be met with suspicion on Capitol Hill.

President Shimon Peres, considered the father of Israel's nuclear program, on Monday sought to justify the policy of ambiguity his country has adopted concerning the issue.

On Iran, Peres said newly elected President Hassan Rouhani represented a "chance", in contrast with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence the moderate leader was a "wolf in sheep's clothing."

Iran's Culture Minister Ali Janati said Monday his department will review a ban imposed on certain books which censors have barred from publication, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Those books subjected to censorship or denied permission to be published in the past will be reviewed again and new decisions will be made," IRNA quoted Janati as saying.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi called for all countries with a stake in war-wracked Syria to participate in planned peace talks in Geneva, during a visit to Iraq on Monday.

"All those with interests and influence in the Syrian affair must participate in the meeting," Brahimi said, when asked at a Baghdad news conference whether countries backing the opposition were welcome at the talks.

An accord reached with world powers over Iran's controversial nuclear program could help Tehran foster better ties with Europe, visiting members of the European Parliament said here Sunday.

"It is of great importance for the European Union to reach an agreement with Iran," said Hannes Swoboda, head of a three-member MEP delegation from the socialist and democrat faction visiting Tehran.

Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani named three new ministers on Sunday to replace nominees rejected by the conservative-dominated parliament in August, Iranian media reported.

Rouhani made a last-minute change to his pick for the science, research and technology portfolio for fear of a new rejection by MPs.

Most Israelis support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on the Iran nuclear issue after the Islamic republic met world powers in Geneva this week, an opinion poll showed on Friday.

Some 58 percent of respondents to the question "how would you rate Netanyahu's recent performance in the global arena vis-a-vis Iran?" said it was good (41 percent) or very good (17 percent), said the poll published in Haaretz newspaper.