BEIRUT: The Gulf sultanate of Oman is hosting conversations between Iran’s government and its arch-enemy, the United States, according to acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri’s statement on Monday.
During a press conference in Beirut, Bagheri responded, “We have always continued out negotiations… and they have never stopped,” when asked about the matter. Diplomatic connections between Washington and Tehran were severed during the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
Amidst heightened regional tensions over Gaza, Bagheri participated in indirect negotiations with the United States in Oman in early 2024, according to a March story published in the British newspaper Financial Times.
On his first international travel since taking on the interim position in the wake of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s death in a helicopter crash last month that also claimed the life of Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, Bagheri arrived in Lebanon on Monday. According to Bagheri, the reason he chose to visit Lebanon was “because it is the cradle of resistance” against Israel.
The talks between Tehran’s atomic operations and Western countries are still ongoing, according to Bagheri, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator. The Islamic republic has consistently denied any intention to build nuclear weapons, a fear shared by Western nations.
