Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is expected to depart for Qatar and Oman on Monday, June 19, a source told Iran Nuances.
This upcoming visit comes against the backdrop of recent indirect talks between Iran and the United States through these two Arab states in the region. The talks have been centered on prisoner swap between Iran and the US as well as releasing $7 billion of Iranian frozen funds in South Korea.
The governor of Iran’s central bank, Mohammad Reza Farzin, made a trip to Qatar last week, and it is believed that he was discussing the technical mechanism on transferring Iran’s frozen money in South Korea to Qatar.
Iran’s foreign minister will also travel to Muscat three weeks after the Sultan of Oman came to Tehran. The Sultan of Oman was in Iran on May 29. It was speculated that he was carrying a message from the US to Iran during that visit.
Amirabdollahian had already been to Muscat on April 25 and had talks and meetings with Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister.
Nasser Kanani, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said at the June 12 press briefing about the reports of Iran-US negotiations in Oman, “We appreciated the efforts of Oman and its senior officials, which were made several weeks ago, to help the talks on lifting the sanctions. In this regard, we exchanged messages [with the US] through Oman, and the message exchange is ongoing.”
