WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff held more than two hours of talks with an Iranian delegation in Rome on Friday about Tehran's nuclear program and agreed to meet again in the near future, a senior U.S. official said.

Iran's top commanders boasted readiness to respond to potential Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities amid near-zero progress in the negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

Iran has multiple major sites associated with its rapidly advancing nuclear program, now the subject of several rounds of negotiations with the United States

Iranian filmmaker Saeed Roustaee said on Friday that he was careful in how he shot his Cannes Film Festival entry "Woman and Child", which never shows women without the mandatory hijab, but was still unsure how he would be received when he returned home.

Despite Baku's rapprochement with Tehran, deep strategic mistrust and competing alliances continue to shape their cautious engagement.