Iran’s acting foreign minister says indirect talks with US ongoing via Oman

DUBAI – Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the US via Oman, Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was quoted as saying by local newspaper Etemad on July 11.

Mr Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on July 8 in which a White House spokesperson said the US was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Indirect talks are being conducted through Oman, but the negotiation process is confidential, and its details cannot be recounted,” Mr Bagheri Kani was quoted as saying.

Efforts are being made to leave “suitable grounds” for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.

Mr Pezeshkian, a low-profile moderate who won Iran’s run-off presidential vote last week, has said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the six powers that have been involved in now-stalled nuclear talks to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.

But foreign policy in Iran is ultimately decided by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who warned in June prior to the election that “one who thinks that nothing can be done without the favour of America will not manage the country well”.

Mr Pezeshkian is taking office at a time of growing Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which have exacerbated disputes between Tehran and Washington.

In a letter to Mr Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Mr Pezeshkian reiterated on July 10 Tehran’s continued support for Palestinians against “the occupation of the Zionist regime (Israel)”.

Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and Sunni Muslim Hamas are part of a group of Iranian-backed factions in the region known as the axis of resistance. REUTERS