A U.S. delegation including Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and acting U.S. Iran envoy Abram Paley held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Oman last week on avoiding regional escalation, according to Axios.
Iran’s official IRNA news organization confirmed the indirect talks, but there was no comment from either the White House or State Department, according to Axios.
The report, which cited officials familiar with the talks, comes after a round of indirect talks in Oman in January focusing on the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Red Sea shipping.
McGurk and Paley represented the U.S. in those talks, the first between Washington and Tehran in 10 months, while Iran was represented by Ali Bagheri, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister and top nuclear negotiator, according to The Financial Times.
It was unclear who represented Iran in last week’s talks.
It was reported last month in the wake of the Islamic Republic’s April 13 attack on Israel that Tehran is also trying to restart moribund talks with the Biden administration on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement.
The Islamic Republic is seeking to use its unprecedented drone and missile assault on the Jewish state, as well as Israel’s response to it, as an opening to revive the 2015 deal, that was scrapped by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018, according to Iran’s Shargh newspaper.
“In return for a de-escalation demanded by the West, there will be new nuclear negotiations. The aim is to lift the sanctions that are paralyzing Iran,” according to Shargh.
