Vice Admiral John Miller, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, said on Sunday that a massive naval minesweeping exercise involving 41 countries was not directed at Iran.

"It is not about Iran," Miller said at a news conference in the Bahraini capital Manama, the fleet's headquarters, saying the maneuvers were "purely defensive".

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has urged the conservative Istiqlal party to go back on a decision to pull out from the Islamist-led government, a spokesman for the party said on Sunday.

Istiqlal's national council, the main ally of the ruling Islamists, announced on Saturday it was pulling out of the government over its failure to shore up the economy and solve dire social issues.

Saudi Arabia's interior minister on Sunday discussed security cooperation with Yemen, home to Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Yemen's official Saba news agency reported from the neighboring kingdom.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef discussed with Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi in Saudi Arabia "strengthening bilateral security cooperation for preserving security in both countries," Saba said.

The European Commission announced on Sunday an additional 65 million euros ($84 million) in aid for Syrian refugees and internally displaced, warning the crisis is "already at breaking point".

The announcement came in a statement released to coincide with a visit to Syrian refugees in Jordan by humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

Former U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday that deepening U.S. military involvement in Syria's civil war would be a "mistake," warning the outcome would be unpredictable and messy.

In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," Gates also said he saw "no good outcomes" in dealing with Iran's nuclear program and warned that a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would be "a disastrous mistake."

Tunisian forces prevented on Sunday Salafists in two cities in the southeast from pitching tents to preach in, the private Shems FM radio reported, a day after police fired tear gas at the radical Islamists in the capital Tunis.

Police dispersed "without violence" Salafists trying to set up a tent in front of the headquarters of the governorate in Tataouine, 550 kilometers (around 365 miles) south of Tunis, the radio's correspondent said from the site.

Gunmen shot dead four women in Baghdad and killed three men north of the capital on Sunday, security and medical officials said.

The women were killed in a house in the Karrada area of central Baghdad, while the men were shot dead while walking on the main road in the Mishahada area, they said.

Israeli opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich on Sunday urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to seize the chance of resuming peace negotiations as the two met for talks at his West Bank headquarters.

According to a statement from her office, the two discussed "the situation in the Middle East and the chances of making progress between Israel and the Palestinians".

Iran's media was split on Sunday over which candidate to back in next month's presidential election after a key moderate and a powerful government figure entered the fray.

The front pages of the reformist press were plastered with pictures of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate, while newspapers favoring the incumbent president touted government candidate Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday condemned bombings in Turkey that killed dozens of people, saying they provide an additional incentive for international cooperation in fighting terrorism.

"The Iraqi government expresses its... strong condemnation of the criminal bombings in the Turkish town of Reyhanli and expresses its solidarity with the... Turkish people and the families of the innocent victims," Maliki said in a statement on his website.