O Iran stated, this Monday the 14th, that there is currently no “basis” to continue indirect negotiations with the USA through Oman, citing the crisis in Middle East.
Iran said in June that it had participated in negotiations with the United States mediated by Oman, despite not having diplomatic relations.
“There is currently no basis for such negotiations until we have put the current crisis behind us,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The initiative, he explained, was interrupted “due to the specific conditions of the region”.
Iran fired 200 missiles at Israel on October 1, claiming to have done so in response to the deaths of Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli bombing raid south of Beirut on September 27; and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, killed in an explosion blamed on Israel on July 31 in Tehran.
Israel has promised that it will respond to this attack.
Oman has long mediated between Iran and the United States, two countries that cut ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The United States is Israel’s main ally and arms supplier, and Iran supports the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the armed group Hezbollah, which fights Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
During his trip to Oman, Araghchi spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Araghchi expressed his recognition for the efforts of China, a permanent member of the five-nation Council, to “stop the warmongering and crimes of the Zionist regime” (Israel) in Gaza and Lebanon.
“The inaction of the UN Security Council due to the US blockade is a disaster,” said Araghchi.
