Israel envoy secretly pushes EU over P5+1 talks: Report

Amidror arrived in Brussels on Monday and met Helga Schmid, EU’s deputy secretary general for political affairs, who is in charge of coordinating preparatory talks between Iran and the P5+1 - permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- ahead of the next round of talks in the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad, on May 23, Ha’aretz reported.

The top Israeli security official will continue his meetings with other European officials on Tuesday and will head for Germany on Wednesday where he is expected to meet with his German counterpart Christoph Heusgen, and Berlin’s representative for Baghdad talks, Hans-Dieter Lucas.

Tel Aviv has declined to comment on the report.

A senior Israeli official has described Amidror’s Europe tour as "extremely sensitive.” He said the visits are aimed at obtaining more information about the contents of the previous round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul and knowing the P5+1’s strategy about the Baghdad meeting.

The representatives of Iran as well as the P5+1 resumed their talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program at a meeting in Istanbul on April 14. Both sides expressed contentment with the general atmosphere of the negotiations.

Two weeks ago, Amidror had made another visit to Russia’s capital city, Moscow, to hold similar talks with the Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

During the meeting Lavrov warned Israel against the catastrophic ramification of any military adventurism against Iran and lauded Tehran’s “positive attitude” during the Istanbul talks.

The report pointed out that Amidror’s visits to Europe and Russia reflect Tel Aviv’s concerns over the promising prospect of the Iran-P5+1 talks.

The US, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed allegations over its nuclear activities, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.