As time ran out for U.S. lawmakers to halt the Iran nuclear deal Thursday, officials in Washington turned their attention to ensuring that Tehran lives up to its side of the bargain.

Senior administration officials said the "ball is in Iran's court" as it seeks to convince the international community its nuclear program has been halted, just short of the threshold of producing an atomic weapon.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards Wednesday to be on alert for "political and cultural" infiltration by the United States.

"The main purpose of the enemies is for Iranians to give up on their revolutionary mentality," Khamenei told a gathering of Guards commanders and personnel in Tehran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Russia next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Moscow's military support for the Damascus regime and "threats" facing Israel, his office said Wednesday.

Netanyahu will speak about "the deployment of Russian military forces in Syria," a statement said.

More than 20 Kuwaitis denied in court Tuesday that they were linked to Iran and Lebanon's Hizbullah, alleging that confessions were extracted under extreme physical torture.

All 23 men in court told judge Mohammad al-Duaij they were systematically tortured by beatings and electric shocks, with interrogators threatening to kill them if they did not sign "prepared confessions."

Saudi-led coalition warplanes heavily bombarded rebel positions across the Yemeni capital Saturday, ahead of expected U.N.-mediated peace talks, witnesses said.

They targeted arms depots and military camps in the rebel-held capital's northern districts.

Iran's foreign ministry said on Friday that the United States had no option but to strike a nuclear deal with Tehran, after a Republican bid to block the agreement failed.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed as a "victory for diplomacy" Thursday's Senate vote during which a Democratic minority in the U.S. Senate staved off the bid to sink the nuclear deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to visit the White House in early November, a U.S. spokesman said Friday, the first time he's been invited since a fierce row over the Iranian nuclear deal.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was an "ongoing effort" to find an exact date for the meeting, but that it would be a chance to deepen cooperation.

U.S. lawmakers vote Thursday on whether to advance a measure opposing the landmark deal that restricts Iran's nuclear program, but Senate Democrats will almost certainly ensure President Barack Obama's historic accord goes into force.

If the resolution is blocked, as expected, it would mark a huge victory for Obama and the most significant policy priority of his second presidential term.

Eleven Iraqis were killed when the bus they were travelling in skidded off the road as they headed home from a pilgrimage to neighboring Iran, Iranian media reported on Monday.

Ten of the dead were women, the ISNA news agency said, adding that the accident happened on Sunday night in western Iran, between the Shiite shrine city of Qom and the Iraqi border.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that European countries have a "humanitarian and historic duty" to do more to shelter migrants arriving at its borders.

"The world, especially Europe, has a humanitarian and historic duty to (...) help these displaced and stranded people," Rouhani said, quoted on his website.