Iran denies secret nuclear talks with Israel: official

"This lie is a kind of psychological operation designed to affect the constant successes of Iran's dynamic diplomacy during the Geneva and Vienna meetings," said Ali Shirzadian, the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, on Thursday.

"Throughout the September talks in the Egyptian capital, the Iranian delegation had spoken out against the Zionist regime's nuclear arsenal, and ... the daily killing of the Palestinian women and children by the occupying regime as a danger to humanity," Shirzadian said.

"The Islamic Republic does not recognize the Zionist regime. It considers it to be a counterfeit and illegitimate," he added.

Officials of Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) and Iran have held talks recently, a spokeswoman from the Commission confirmed on Thursday.

"It is true," IAEC spokeswoman Yael Doron told Xinhua through telephone, however, adding that there was no "face to face discussion."