By Agencies
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has arrived in Oman in the wake of talks held in the country between Tehran and Washington over the former’s nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.
Larijani, a close adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is due to meet Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the chief intermediary in the talks, as well as Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The agency said “discussions over the latest regional and international developments” were on the agenda for Larijani’s visit to Muscat, “as well as ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Iran and Oman”.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said some analysts were interpreting the visit, on the back of the recent talks in the country, “as a positive sign indicating a sort of progress” in efforts to advance the negotiations.
Oman hosted talks on Iran’s nuclear programme last week aimed at avoiding a conflict between Tehran and Washington, amid surging tensions and a growing United States military build-up in the region.
It was an outcome of concerted diplomatic efforts in the region to avert a conflict. A second round of talks has been confirmed, but a date has not been announced.
IRNA reported on Tuesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had held a series of phone calls with his counterparts in Turkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to brief them on the latest developments in the indirect negotiations with Washington in Muscat.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Larijani’s visit was part of regional consultations in line with Tehran’s policy of strengthening relations with neighbouring countries, and had been planned in advance.
Regarding the negotiations with the US, Baghaei said Washington “must act independently, free from the destructive pressures being exerted that harm the region and American interests”.
He urged the US to resist Israeli pressure over the nuclear issue, claiming that “one of the United States’ problems in the region is its subservience to the demands of the Zionist entity, which is the primary factor destabilising security in the region.
“Israel has turned our nuclear programme into an artificial crisis and is trying to raise unfounded fears about a nuclear bomb that does not exist in Iran,” he said.
Baghaei added that the latest nuclear talks had been to gauge the “seriousness” of the other side, adding that Iran was “committed to diplomacy to secure the interests of our people, taking into account past negative experiences”.
He said Larijani would visit Qatar after his trip to Oman.

