The United States has no plans to consult Iran on any potential military action in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday, but left the door open to diplomatic discussions on the crisis.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said "there is absolutely no intention, no plan to coordinate military activities between the United States and Iran."

Hundreds of protesters from Pakistan's minority Shiite Hazara community on Sunday staged a demonstration in the southwestern city of Quetta against a government ban on road travel to Iran where they go for pilgrimage. 

Men, women and children sat on a main road carrying placards and chanting slogans demanding the ban be lifted. 

Iran warned on Sunday that "any foreign military intervention in Iraq" would only complicate the crisis, after the U.S. said it was deploying a warship in the Gulf.

"Iraq has the capacity and necessary preparations for the fight against terrorism and extremism," foreign ministry spokesman Marzieh Afkham was Sunday quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Iran is serious in seeking a comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers despite lingering differences, President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday, insisting negotiations could succeed before a July 20 deadline expires.

But Rouhani added that should Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany not strike a deal next month, the process will continue until all differences are resolved.

Shiite Iran offered Saturday to consider working with long-time foe Washington if it takes the lead in helping repel Sunni Arab militants who have seized a swathe of northern Iraq.

The offer came as Iraqi commanders said soldiers had recaptured two towns north of Baghdad as they prepared a fightback, bolstered by thousands of Shiite volunteers who answered a call to arms from top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The United States and five other world powers will try from Monday in Vienna to salvage their troubled nuclear talks with Iran five weeks before a deadline expires.

The fiendishly complex accord they want to strike is aimed at finally resolving a standoff that for years has been threatening to escalate out of control.

Iran's foreign minister warned critics Friday not to let "illusions" about his country's nuclear program scuttle a deal, voicing hope that a historic agreement will be reached soon.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, writing in The Washington Post, said that President Hassan Rouhani's reformist government has offered "serious" proposals that would "provide assurances of the exclusively peaceful nature of our nuclear program."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promised Iraq's beleaguered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki his government's full support against "terrorism" on Friday as Sunni Arab militants advanced towards Baghdad.

Shiite Iran is a key ally of co-religionist Maliki, whose government has been left in disarray by the collapse of its security forces since Monday across a swathe of northern and north-central Iraq, including second city Mosul.

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor has accused Hizbullah and Iran of launching a campaign of terror against the Jewish State, urging the international community to find an “antidote” to eradicate the virus of terrorism.

“Israelis are the targets of a terror campaign directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizbullah,” Prosor told the 94th plenary meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran will combat terrorism by Sunni extremists in neighboring Iraq, President Hassan Rouhani warned Thursday.

Rouhani did not say exactly what Iran intended to do to help stop an offensive by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that is pushing toward Baghdad after seizing several cities and towns to the north.