Official Denies Omani Mediation between Iran, US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi dismissed speculation that the Omani foreign minister’s recent trip to Tehran was aimed at mediation between Iran and the United States.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Vaezi rejected reports of any effort by Muscat to mediate between Tehran and Washington.
The president's chief of staff underlined that Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah paid a visit to Tehran to meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif for talks on Tehran-Muscat bilateral ties and regional developments.
“There has not been any talk of mediation in their negotiations at all,” Vaezi emphasized.
Asked about the Iraqi prime minister’s purported plan to dispatch two separate delegations to Iran and the US, he said such a team has not arrived in Tehran so far.
“Tehran-Baghdad relations are very close. We do not say that they (Iraqis) should not send (a delegation), they will definitely come, and we will also listen to them, but what matters is what decision we will be making about their proposal,” Vaezi explained.
In August 2018, Zarif said Tehran had received messages from Switzerland and Oman offering mediation between Tehran and Washington.
Last week, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined that there will be no military confrontation between Iran and the US as Washington is aware that it won’t be in its interest, adding that negotiation with the US is not on the Islamic Republic’s agenda either.
“The Iranian nation’s definite option will be resistance in the face of the US, and in this confrontation, the US would be forced into a retreat,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Neither we nor they, who know war will not be in their interest, are after war.”
