NNA - European foreign ministers told their Iranian counterpart in a call on Monday to return to nuclear negotiations with the U.S. and refrain from escalating conflict with Israel, to which Iran's foreign minister said Tehran's priority was to confront Israel for now, according to a French diplomatic source.

Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion against Iran's nuclear facilities in the early hours of Friday, just two days before U.S. and Iranian negotiators were due to resume talks to forge a new deal on Iran's nuclear programme.--Reuters

==========R.H.