WASHINGTON: Senior US and Iranian officials conversed through intermediaries in Oman last week, the first of such discussions following Iran’s strike on Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones that was carried out last month by an informant.
Brett McGurk, the key West Asia policy advisor at the White House, and Abram Paley, a deputy special envoy for Iran, participated in the talks held in Oman.
The purpose was to have Iran rein in all its partners; who provide weapons and training across West Asia. With several Iraqi and Syrian Iran-backed militias ramping up their attacks against American soldiers since the onset of Israeli-Hamas war, fears about a wider war are increasing. For instance, the most powerful among regional militias is Lebanon’s Hezbollah that has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces both in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon. Nonetheless, neither Iran nor Hezbollah intends for an expanded conflict based on US intelligence officers’ estimates.
Since 1979 when diplomatic relations between United States and Iran collapsed, there is no formal communication between them but rather indirect communication through intermediaries.
In Jan this year it was just like before as there were two rooms; one room had Americans while Iranians sat on another side while Omani officials were walking back and forth.
