Iran has admitted to holding indirect talks with arch-rival the United States in Oman, state media reported, despite the two countries having no diplomatic relations.
The US and Iranian governments have been at loggerheads for many years over tensions centered around Iran’s nuclear program and tensions heightened by the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, their respective allies.
On Friday, American news website Axios reported that American and Iranian officials held indirect talks in Oman on “ways to avoid an escalation of regional attacks.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s representative to the United Nations confirmed indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman,” state news agency IRNA said late Saturday.
“This is not the first time, and it will not be the last,” the newspaper quoted him as saying, but did not specify the time or location of the negotiations.
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The talks came after Iran launched unprecedented drone and missile attacks against Israel on April 13-14.
The barrage was a follow-up to the deadly April 1 airstrike that destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two generals, an Israeli attack that was widely blamed. It was done as a reaction.
The Israeli military said most of the more than 300 missiles and drones launched by Iran were intercepted with help from the United States and other allies, and the attacks caused minimal damage.
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Less than a week later, an explosion occurred in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, which US media reported as an Israeli response to the Iranian attack.
The Iranian government has since downplayed the reported Israeli attack, saying it would not respond unless Iranian “interests” were targeted again.
Israel has been Iran’s sworn enemy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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Tensions in the region have been rising since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, with Iranian-backed militant groups from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen converging.
Switzerland represents US interests in Iran.
The two rival countries have held indirect talks in recent years over measures to curb Iran’s nuclear program, prisoner exchanges, and the release of Iranian funds frozen overseas.
AP/MZ/FZ
