Iran urged world governments Thursday to respect the will of Syrian voters in giving its close ally President Bashar Assad a new term in a poll dismissed by the West as a farce.

"Iran insists on respect for the vote of the Syrian people as they are the only ones entitled to decide their political future," the foreign ministry said.

The United States on Wednesday welcomed Iran's recent efforts to alleviate concerns about its nuclear program, but urged it to increase the pace of cooperation.

A recent report by the U.N. atomic watchdog IAEA found Iran was sticking to its agreements with the agency and implementing all newly agreed measures, even addressing matters related to bomb-making for the first time in six years.

A quarter of a century after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death, Iran remains at a crossroads in navigating its way out of economic and diplomatic troubles, against a backdrop of political infighting.

Wednesday marks 25 years of the Islamic republic without its founder, the charismatic spiritual and political leader who remains ever-present on bank notes, portraits in public offices and countless posters.

U.N. atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano welcomed Iran's compliance with measures to lift suspicions about its nuclear program on Monday, but cautioned that some doubt remained.

He also appealed for patience ahead of a July 20 deadline for a deal between Western powers and Iran, as the IAEA analyzes data that Iran may have sought a nuclear bomb.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah on Sunday started a landmark visit to Tehran focused on mending fences between Shiite Iran and the Sunni-ruled monarchies in the Gulf.

The two-day visit comes amid a thaw in ties between Tehran and six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since the election of Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani in June 2013.

Iran on Sunday executed a political prisoner because authorities thought he was behind recent unrest in a Tehran prison, an exiled opposition group said.

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was convicted of "waging war against God" (moharebeh) by helping the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) and then hanged, state media reported.

Iran on Sunday hanged a man said to be affiliated to an exiled opposition group, state media reported, despite international pressure on the Islamic republic to halt the execution.

According to the official IRNA news agency, Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was convicted of "waging war against God" (moharebeh) by helping the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Saturday that ongoing negotiations between world powers and Iran over its disputed nuclear program have been "encouraging".

His remarks in Abu Dhabi come ahead of a new round of talks in mid-June between Iran and the P5+1 powers of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany.

Floods have killed three women in northeastern Iran and emergency workers rescued 600 people from a neighboring region hit by a landslide, media and the Red Crescent reported Saturday.

Heavy rains hit Iran hard in the past week, with the fatalities being recorded in Khorasan province.

A commander from Iran's Revolutionary Guards has been killed in Syria, media said Saturday, a disclosure that runs counter to Tehran's insistence it is not fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces.

Reports that Abdollah Eskandari died while "defending" a Shiite shrine emerged earlier this week but neither the elite military unit nor Iran's foreign ministry have passed comment.