Israel's intelligence minister on Tuesday wrapped up a two-day European diplomatic offensive against making concessions to Iran in nuclear negotiations with world powers, his spokesman said.

"Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz completed two days of intensive discussion in Paris and London," a statement from Eyal Basson said, adding that the minister was accompanied by National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen and "intelligence experts".

"They met the British negotiating team, headed by Simon Gass, and senior intelligence officials," the statement said, adding that Steinitz in his meetings talked about Iranian research and development on advanced centrifuges.

These highly sophisticated machines enrich uranium gas at supersonic speeds to make it suitable for power generation. At high purification levels it can also be used in an atomic bomb.

Iran currently has about 19,000 centrifuges, of which just over 10,000 are operational.

Steinitz said that a deal with Tehran should oblige it to reveal details about past experiments it has carried out in nuclear weapons technology, the statement said.

It gave no details about the Israeli delegation's talks in Paris.

A statement on Sunday said that Steinitz was "on a mission from Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) for a short visit to Europe in an attempt to influence the details of the emerging agreement on the Iran nuclear issue".

Netanyahu has repeatedly called for Iran's entire nuclear capability to be dismantled.

Both France and Britain are members of the P5+1 group of powers in nuclear talks with Iran that are set to resume on Wednesday or Thursday in Switzerland.

France has expressed scepticism about the speed of a potential deal in which Iran would place its nuclear programme under severe restrictions in exchange for a stage-by-stage lifting of international sanctions.

Netanyahu, who was elected to a third term last week in a close-fought general election, spoke to the US Congress during his campaign to denounce the agreement under negotiation as a "bad deal".

"That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons," he told the US lawmakers.

"It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them."

UN nuclear agency regrets slow pace of Iran cooperation
Washington (AFP) March 23, 2015 –

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency voiced regret Monday that little progress had been made in recent months on Iranian cooperation over any possible military dimension of its nuclear program.

"It is true that we have had some engagement from Iran on issues with possible military dimension. But in the past several months, progress is very limited," Yukiya Amano, the head of the agency said on the sidelines of a conference on nuclear proliferation.

His remarks come as US Secretary of State John Kerry is to return to Switzerland for talks Thursday with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on a deal to restrain Tehran's nuclear program, Kerry's office said.

Kerry's return to Lausanne will again feed speculation that the top world powers represented in the "P5+1" group are nearing an agreement with Tehran, with a March 31 deadline looming to agree to the outlines of a deal.

The complex deal on the table would likely involve Iran reducing its nuclear activities, allowing tight inspections, and limiting development of new nuclear machinery.

In exchange, Iran — which denies wanting nuclear weapons — would get relief from the mountain of painful sanctions that have strangled its oil exports and hammered its economy.

The IAEA for years has been investigating the possible military dimensions (PMD) of the Iranian nuclear program.

"We need to accelerate that clarification," Amano said. "But the fact is that progress is limited.

"I think the clarification of the issues of PMDs is needed to enhance the confidence in Iran's nuclear activities," he said.

The Japanese diplomat sounded upbeat about the potential for an agreement being implemented — if one is reached.

"If a new agreement is agreed, it is the interest of Iran to implement it. … We may have some problems from time to time. That happens with any country. We don't have particular reason that it will not be implemented."

Israeli minister warns French against 'bad accord' with Iran
Paris (AFP) March 24, 2015 –

An Israeli cabinet minister visiting Paris warned Tuesday against concluding a "bad accord" on Iran's nuclear programme, telling French daily Le Monde his country shares France's wariness of trusting Tehran.

"We believe it would be a bad accord with severe gaps in it," said Israeli Intelligence Minister Youval Steinitz, who met French President Francois Hollande's diplomatic advisor on Monday.

The visit came amid an Israeli lobbying campaign against a nuclear accord with Iran, which saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver a controversial address to the US Congress warning legislators about any deal.

"This is perhaps the last opportunity to influence these negotiations before a memorandum of understanding is signed," Steinitz said.

Tehran and the world's major powers are facing a March 31 deadline to conclude a framework agreement to pare back Iran's nuclear programme to ensure it can never build an atomic bomb.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif are scheduled to resume talks in Lausanne Thursday in a bid to beat this month's deadline for a deal that must be finalised by July.

But as efforts to make sufficient progress to conclude a deal in time have picked up pace, divisions have appeared within the so-called P5+1 group made up of the UN Security Council permanent members the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia plus Germany.

Paris in particular has expressed fears a rush to sign an agreement may grant Iran enough concessions for Tehran to cheat or otherwise pursue military nuclear development.

During his visit, Steinitz echoed French concerns about an overly flexible deal.

"We see things the same way France does. We have the same suspicions about Iran, its intentions in the Middle East and the possibility it will not respect the accord," Steinitz warned.

"If Iran became a (nuclear) country, many Sunni nations in the region would join the nuclear race."

Israel itself is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but has an official policy of neither confirming or denying it has such an arsenal