The foreign ministers of Bahrain and Iran met in New York late Monday for their first talks since the two countries withdrew their ambassadors in a row over the crushing of Shiite-led protests in Manama, Iran said on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told his Bahraini counterpart that the Sunni minority government should open a dialogue with the Gulf kingdom's Shiite majority, his ministry quoted him as saying.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday warned those involved in popular Arab uprisings against trusting Western powers and their "promises," saying they should instead confide in Islam for solutions.

"Never trust America, NATO, and criminal regimes like Britain, France and Italy -- who for a long time divided your lands (among themselves) and plundered them," Khamenei said as he opened a two-day conference in Tehran on "Islamic Awakening" attended by several hundred guests from Arab countries.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday asked the judiciary to launch an "honest" probe into a massive $2.6 billion scam, while brushing aside claims that members of his inner circle are involved.

Enemies of the government "launch accusations against us through a massive amount of propaganda, so the real thieves can get away," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northwestern city of Ardabil, broadcast on the presidency website.

Iran has rejected accusations by the Gulf Cooperation Council that Tehran issued provocative statements about its member states, the state television website reported on Monday.

"The Islamic republic's regional policy has always followed the principles of mutual respect, (being) good-neighborly and refraining from interference in the internal affairs of other countries," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by the website as saying.

A number of cholera cases have been detected in Iran, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi said on Wednesday, blaming "foreigners" and contaminated vegetables for the outbreak.

"In recent days, due to the illegal entry of foreigners in Iran, cholera appeared in parts of the country," Vahid Dastjerdi was quoted as saying by the government information website dolat.ir.

Iran urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday not to make comments based on "unrealistic information," after Paris called for tougher sanctions over Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

"As stated repeatedly, Iran's nuclear activity is completely peaceful and International Atomic Energy Agency reports have confirmed it," state television quoted the foreign ministry's head of western Europe affairs as saying.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Tehran on Friday at the "Quds Day" rally, an annual regime-sanctioned demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel, according to footage aired on state television.

The television showed large crowds in major cities, carrying banners of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Iran has received "two thirds" of India's 4.8 billion dollar (3.3 billion euro) oil arrears piled up by sanctions-related payment problems, central bank head said Monday on ISNA news agency.

"Two thirds of the oil arrears owed to Iran by India have been received. The rest is on its way and there are no problems in this regard," Mahmoud Bahmani said.

The U.N.'s newly appointed human rights investigator to Iran called Wednesday on Tehran to allow him to visit the country to examine alleged rights violations there.

"I issued a written communication to the Iranian authorities to introduce myself and express my interest in visiting the country," Ahmed Shaheed, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the situation in Iran, said in a statement.

The Israeli secret service Mossad was responsible for the assassination last month of an Iranian scientist in Tehran, Germany's Spiegel Online news website reported.

The killing of Dariush Rezaei-Nejad was "the first serious action taken by the new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo," according to an unidentified Israeli intelligence source quoted by Spiegel Online.