A nuclear deal with Iran is possible but Tehran must make "new efforts" to clinch agreement, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday.

"We wish to have an agreement and it is possible, but there has to be new progress," Fabius told reporters at U.N. headquarters ahead of his trip to Lausanne to join the talks now in their final stretch.

Saudi Arabia halted flights at seven airports near the Yemeni border on Thursday, as it launched air strikes against Huthi rebels in its southern neighbor, the civil aviation department said.

"The General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia announced a temporary suspension of international and domestic flights to and from airports in the south of the kingdom," from dawn on Thursday, the department said in a statement.

Saudi air strikes on Shiite rebels in Yemen triggered a furious reaction from regional rival Iran on Thursday, with top officials warning that military action could spill into other countries.

The bombing of the Huthi rebels, who are said to be backed by Iran, came after days in which Yemen was said to be facing civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left Washington on Wednesday for a date with history, hoping to seal a deal reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions for years to come.

After months of closed-door negotiations, Kerry and his team was headed once again for talks in Switzerland with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel blamed Iran on the spread of crises in the region and criticized Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over his “illogical” stance from the presidential deadlock.

“The (region's) crises began since Iran started to spread its influence in Iraq, Syria and in Lebanon through Hizbullah,” Gemayel told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama insisted Tuesday that his disagreement with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu represents a substantial policy difference and not a personal vendetta.

As the Israeli premier works to build a new coalition government at home, he faces one of the worst confrontations in his stormy relationship with the White House.

The top Republican in Congress said Tuesday he was "shocked" by a report that Israel spied on Iranian nuclear talks but insisted he did not know whether information was shared with U.S. lawmakers.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that in addition to Israelis spying on the highly-sensitive negotiations between Tehran and world powers, details were back-channelled to U.S. legislators in an effort to sabotage the deal intended to limit Iran's nuclear program.

Israel has spied on Iran's nuclear talks with the United States and other major powers, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Israel quickly dismissed the report as "not true", and denied spying on the United States.

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.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expected positive developments in the presidential deadlock after a possible deal over Iran's nuclear program.

Al-Mustaqbal daily on Monday quoted Berri as saying that any agreement between the P5+1 group of powers and Tehran would lead to a