DPA - Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim had his hopes dashed Friday after Iran's Ministry of Culture said he will not be allowed to perform in Tehran, the Iranian news agency Fars reported.

Barenboim, 72, general music director at Berlin's Staatsoper opera house, said on Thursday that there were discussions with Tehran over a proposed concert.

Sources with the opera house have told German media that if the nuclear deal is finalized, the orchestra will accompany German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her first visit to the Islamic Republic.

But spokesman Hussein Nushabadi rejected the symbolic gesture with the statement: "Iran does not recognize the Zionist regime (Israel) and will not work together with artists of this regime."

Nushabadi told news agency Fars that the culture minister immediately spiked the idea on finding out that Barenboim is an Israeli citizen.

Israel however also criticized the conductor's planned concert ahead of reaction from Tehran. Barenboim, who is a vocal opponent of Israel's settlement policy in Palestinian territories, was abusing Israeli culture to benefit his own political goals, according to a post by Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev on Wednesday, who also accused him of undermining Israel’s efforts to block the Iranian nuclear deal.

Regev said on Facebook she planned to contact the Foreign Ministry and Germany’s culture ministry to make this point.