Iran's foreign minister says new diplomacy isolated Israel

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has hit back at increasingly scathing criticism from hardliners over the country's diplomatic direction, saying on Tuesday that his pragmatic approach had isolated Israel internationally.

After years of bellicose rhetoric from ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Zarif said the new government had managed to undermine Israel's constant portrayal of Iran as a danger to the world because of its nuclear ambitions.

Ultra-conservatives have upped the ante in recent weeks by chastising an interim nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers in November, under Zarif's brief as the top negotiator.

A group of critics comprised of religious figures, former lawmakers and officials are unhappy about Zarif's more moderate foreign policy, including what they call his "reactionary stance towards the bastard (Israeli) Zionist regime and the Holocaust."

Lawmakers, particularly those in Iran's national security and foreign policy commission,  have stepped up critcism of Zarif in the Majlis (parliament).

Zarif took aim at Israel's nuclear programme in the Majlis on Tuesday, Iranian media reported.

"[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu shamelessly makes a scene saying Iran denies the Holocaust, Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb to carry out another Holocaust," Zarif said. "My colleagues and I are telling the world Iran is opposed to anti-Semiticism and genocide," he added.

After the questioning, the conservative legislators said they were "satisfied" with Zarif's answers, the Associated Press reported.