Iran and US held secret talks on proxy attacks and ceasefire
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Iran and the United States held secret, indirect talks in Oman in January.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
WASHINGTON - Iran and the United States held secret, indirect talks in Oman in January, addressing the escalating threat posed to Red Sea shipping by the Houthis in Yemen, as well as the attacks on US bases by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, according to Iranian and US officials familiar with the discussions.
The secret talks were held Jan 10 in Muscat, the capital of Oman, with Omani officials shuffling messages back and forth between delegations of Iranians and Americans sitting in separate rooms. The delegations were led by Mr Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, and Mr Brett McGurk, President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the Middle East.
The meeting, first reported by The Financial Times this week, was the first time Iranian and US officials had held in-person negotiations – albeit indirectly – in nearly eight months. US officials said Iran requested the meeting in January, and the Omanis strongly recommended that the United States accept.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks on Israel, the US and Iran have reassured each other that neither was seeking a direct confrontation.
In Oman, each side had a clear request of the other, according to US and Iranian officials.
Washington wanted Iran to rein in its proxies to stop the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the targeting of US bases in Iraq and Syria. Tehran, in turn, wanted the Biden administration to deliver a ceasefire in Gaza.
No agreement was reached, however, and within hours after Mr McGurk left the meeting, the US led military strikes on Jan 11 on multiple Houthi targets in Yemen. In early February, it launched strikes on Iranian-linked military bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the killing of three US service members in an attack by an Iraqi militia close to Iran.
Attacks on US bases have since ended in Iraq, and there have been reports of only a few such attacks in Syria.
But the Houthis have carried on with 102 attacks against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov 19, according to the Pentagon. As of March 14, the US had conducted 44 strikes on Houthi targets, but these attacks have not deterred the Houthis. NYTIMES
