A major U.S.-led naval minesweeping exercise got underway in the Gulf Sunday as tension remain high over Iran and its controversial nuclear program.

The exercise kicked off on the same day the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of retaliation against the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and nearby U.S. bases if his country is attacked, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on a "red line" from Washington, claiming Tehran is "90 percent" toward having a nuclear bomb.

The head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards on Sunday warned of retaliation against the Gulf's strategic Strait of Hormuz, U.S. bases in the Middle East and Israel if his country was to be attacked.

General Mohammed Ali Jaafari, speaking in a very rare news conference in Tehran, also said that he believed Iran would abandon the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should it be targeted for military action.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a fresh push to turn the screws on Iran's nuclear program, saying the Islamic Republic's leaders are guided by "unbelievable fanaticism."

Netanyahu's comments, part of an interview to be aired on NBC television's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, came after the hawkish leader of the Jewish state made repeated demands that U.S. President Barack Obama set unambiguous "red lines" on the program.

German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere dismissed Israeli pressure not to sell two submarines to Egypt, while acknowledging the country was "not as stable" as he would like in an interview published Saturday.

"No country in the world has the right of veto to decisions taken by the German government," the minister told the Frankfurter Rundschau when asked to comment on the probable sale of two Type 209 attack submarines.

Palestinians on Friday protested an anti-Muslim film, with thousands gathering in the Gaza Strip and hundreds in Jerusalem where they clashed with Israeli police.

In Gaza, thousands of people rallied at demonstrations in Gaza City and the southern town of Rafah, a day after the ruling Hamas party urged citizens to turn out for protests after Friday prayers.

Syria is showing "contempt" towards the U.N. atomic watchdog by refusing to cooperate over a suspected undeclared reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007, the U.S. envoy to the agency said Friday.

President Bashar Assad's government "is using its brutal repression of the Syrian people as an excuse for not cooperating with the agency's investigation," Robert Wood told a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations he is interfering in the U.S. presidential vote by pushing President Barack Obama to take a tougher stand on Iran's nuclear program.

In newspaper interviews published on Friday ahead of the Jewish new year, Netanyahu dismissed accusations that he is trying to paint Obama as weak on Iran in order to boost support for Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Israeli troops handed a deaf nine-year-old Lebanese boy over to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon a day after entering Israel, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

NNA said that Mohammed Hassan Fadl Jawad, who crossed into Israel on Thursday afternoon, was handed over through the Naqoura crossing to UNIFIL, which transferred him to the Lebanese army.

Israel's ties with the United States remain strong despite differences with Washington over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday.

Israel and Washington have publicly disagreed on the way forward in dealing with Iran's nuclear program, which much of the international community believes masks a weapons drive, despite Tehran's denials.

Several hundred Palestinians in the Gaza Strip protested on Thursday against an anti-Muslim film that has sparked deadly riots in Libya and Yemen.

The protest, called by the ruling Hamas government's ministry of religious endowments, comes after two days of demonstrations that have left four U.S. embassy staff including the ambassador dead in Libya and a protester shot dead in Yemen.