Oman working to alleviate brewing US-Iran tensions
WAR IN THE REGION COULD HARM ENTIRE WORLD, BIN ALAWI CAUTIONS
Oman’s Foreign Ministry said it was working to “ease the tensions” between Iran and the US. The ministry in a series of tweets yesterday morning attributed the comments to Yousuf Bin Alawi, the Sultanate’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and cited an interview in Asharq Al Awsat, the Londonbased newspaper owned by a Saudi media group long associated with Al Saud royal family.
In the interview, Bin Alawi warns war “could harm the entire world if it breaks out”.
He doesn’t confirm any current Omani mediation, but says both the US and Iran realise the gravity of the situation.
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed spoke last week by telephone with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Oman has long been an interlocutor of the West with Iran.
The US held secret talks in Oman with the Iranians that gave birth to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Tensions have ratcheted up recently in the Mideast as the White House earlier this month sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region over a still-unexplained threat it perceived from Iran.
On Monday, Iran announced it had quadrupled its production capacity of low-enriched uranium, making it likely that Tehran will soon exceed the stockpile limitations set by the nuclear accord, which would escalate the situation further.
Zarif visits Pakistan
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Pakistan yesterday, a critically-timed visit amid a simmering crisis between Tehran and Washington and ahead of this week’s emergency Arab League meeting called by Saudi Arabia over regional tensions.
The purpose of the visit by Zarif, who held talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, and Prime Minister Imran Khan, was not made public. But there has been speculation that Iran is looking to Islamabad and its close relationship with Riyadh to help de-escalate the situation.
Ahead of Zarif’s arrival, Pakistan’s foreign ministry called on “all sides to show restraint, as any miscalculated move can transmute into a large-scale conflict.”
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia said Yemen’s Iran-backed militants again targeted an airport near its southern border with a bomb-carrying drone.
The Saudi military said it intercepted the drone, while the militant Al Houthis said it struck a Patriot missile battery at the airport. Al Houthis have claimed three times in recent days to have targeted the airport, which also hosts a military base. It comes after the Al Houthis last week targeted a Saudi oil pipeline in a coordinated drone attack.
Iraq warning
Meanwhile, Iraq’s top diplomat yesterday called on Iran to respect the landmark deal covering its nuclear programme, which has been weakened by the US decision to withdraw from it and Tehran’s backing away from certain commitments.
“We think the JCPOA is a good agreement,” said Iraq’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Al Hakim, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by Iran in 2015 with Russia, China, Germany, Britain and the United States.
Under the terms of the deal, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is charged with regular inspections of declared facilities in Iran such as uranium mines and centrifuge workshops for up to 25 years.
The aim is to ensure that Iran is not holding undeclared stocks of nuclear material and is not enriching uranium past a certain level.