U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday warned that Iraqi security forces must not intervene in a political crisis sparked by the appointment of a new prime minister.

"It is imperative that the security forces refrain from intervening in the political process," Ban told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki insists he should remain premier, but with a rival candidate selected with strong international backing, his bid to cling to power has reached a dead end.

President Fuad Masum tasked Haidar al-Abadi with forming a new government, but two-term Premier Maliki has slammed the move as a "constitutional violation" and vowed to sue the president.

Iran's president came under fire from MPs Tuesday for branding his critics as "political cowards' and urging them "go to hell" if they insist on opposing his policies.

President Hassan Rouhani's remarks 24 hours earlier were aimed at hardline conservatives who have bridled at his efforts to improve relations with the West and secure a nuclear deal.

Iran officially ended its long-time allegiance to Iraq's sidelined Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday, swinging its support behind newly designated premier Haidar al-Abadi in a congratulatory message.

The statement confirmed that Maliki had lost the crucial backing of fellow Shiite leaders and politicians in Tehran, making it much harder to credibly fight on and remain head of government in Baghdad.

Iran's inflation has been curbed and its recession is easing but economic growth will depend on the country increasing its non-oil exports, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.

Presenting an economic plan to parliament, Rouhani emphasised that a broad-based economy with more manufacturing is required, along with a hoped-for lifting of international sanctions.

Kuwait Airways said Sunday it will no longer overfly Iraq in the wake of U.S. air strikes on jihadist positions there, the latest company to re-route its flights.

A Bahraini court has stripped nine Shiites of their citizenship, for the first time implementing a 2013 law which revokes the nationality of terrorism convicts, a judicial source said Thursday.

The nine men were found guilty Wednesday of "forming a terrorist organization aimed at smuggling weapons to Bahrain and helping detainees to escape," the source said.

The detention of the Washington Post's Tehran correspondent and two other journalists is a domestic issue and not a matter for the United States, a top Iranian official has said.

A former student leader from Iran's reformist movement has been jailed for six years for undermining national security and spreading propaganda, less than 12 months after returning from abroad

Serajeddine Mirdamadi "was sentenced to five years for acts against national security and one year for spreading propaganda against the regime," Ghiti Pourfazel, his lawyer, told official IRNA news agency.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil called on Monday on the international community to support Lebanon and offer aid to the Lebanese army to confront terrorism, considering the region to be stuck between Islamist groups and Israel.

“Terrorism is moving from an area to another but it will surely be buried on Lebanese territories,” Bassil said during a meeting for the Palestine Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Tehran.