Major world powers and Iran will hold fresh talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program in Geneva on January 18 as they try to meet an end-June deadline for a deal, the European Union announced Wednesday.

The EU-chaired talks, which are aimed at allaying western fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, will be at the official level, picking up from a similar December round in Geneva.

An Iraqi Shiite militia leader and lawmaker has credited Tehran and a powerful Iranian general with saving the Baghdad government during last summer's offensive by Islamic State group militants.

Hadi al-Ameri, a former minister who commands the Badr militia, said support from Iran and General Qassem Suleimani had been crucial after Iraqi government forces collapsed in the face of the IS assault.

French President Francois Hollande said on Monday his country would stand firm on its demand that Tehran vow not to pursue nuclear weapons ahead of fresh international negotiations.

"If there is no clear statement from Iran on giving up nuclear weapons, there will be no agreement," Hollande said on France Inter radio.

Iran arrested a "terrorist cell" accused of killing soldiers in a flashpoint border area and detained in a separate incident three Afghans planning to fight in Iraq, media reported Monday.

The cell members were caught near Sarbaz in the southeast, said a statement from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) published by the official IRNA news agency.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed that any possible agreement between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement would take into consideration the interest of the nation.

“The statement that we issued after the first round of talks (between the two parties) was very clear and very accurate,” local dailies on Monday quoted Berri as telling his visitors.

A draft law that would give greater powers to Iran's police and volunteer militias to enforce women's compulsory wearing of the veil has been ruled unconstitutional, state media reported Saturday.

Under Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 revolution, women must wear loose clothing, known as hijab, that covers the head and neck and which conceals their hair.

Bahrain has urged Iran to look at its own human rights record after it called for the immediate release of the Gulf kingdom's main opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman.

The Bahraini foreign ministry urged Shiite Iran to keep out of the affairs of the Sunni-ruled but Shiite-majority nation for the sake of the security of the whole region.

Iran is to help Iraq rebuild its army under an agreement that could formalize Tehran's military support for its neighbor, which remains under assault by the Islamic State (IS) group.

No details of the pact were released but state television said the two sides had "agreed to continue cooperation in the defense arena with the creation of a national army to protect the territorial integrity and security of Iraq."

Three Iranian soldiers have been killed close to the Pakistani border in an attack in the southeastern Saravan region, the official Fars news agency reported on Monday. 

"Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, three members of the Revolutionary Guards, including Colonel Akbar Abdollahnejad... were killed by armed rebels," a military official told Fars.

Iran has started censoring images posted on photo sharing app Instagram, removing content deemed "offensive" as part of a government project to screen social networking accounts, local media reported Thursday.

"The filtering of pages with immoral content began yesterday (Wednesday) evening on Instagram," the government daily Iran said.