OMAN HOSTS INDIRECT MEETINGS BETWEEN US AND IRANIAN OFFICIALS

Sat 10 June 2023:

American and Iranian officials held indirect talks in Oman last month, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported to American news website Axios on Friday.

Ravid reported from three sources saying that the two sides sat in separate rooms and exchanged messages through Omani officials.

The sources, according to Ravid, said the US made it clear that Iran will pay a heavy price if it moves forward with 90 per cent uranium enrichment — the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

Last week, Axios revealed that White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk traveled to Oman secretly on 8 May for talks with Omani officials on possible diplomatic outreach to Iran regarding its nuclear program.

Ravid’s sources said that an Iranian delegation also arrived in Oman at the same time; one of the sources pointed out that Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kan was part of the delegation.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that the Biden administration’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, recently held a number of meetings with the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani.

These were believed to be the first direct interaction between American and Iranian officials since then-US president Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal.

Last month, Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik went to Tehran for a two-day visit, the first by an Omani leader to the Iranian capital in a decade. The visit came as Iran worked to shed many of the regional rivalries that characterized the past decade, restoring ties with Saudi Arabia and others and expressing support for full diplomatic relations with Egypt for the first time since 1979.