LONDON: US and Iranian officials held discussions in Oman last week aimed at reducing regional tensions, the US media reported.
Through intermediaries from Oman, US’s top Middle East official Brett McGurk and the deputy special envoy for Iran, Abram Paley, spoke with Iranian officials.
It was the first contact between the two nations in the wake of Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attack on Israel in April.
The US has had no diplomatic ties with Iran since 1979 and communicates with Tehran using intermediaries and back channels.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza last October, Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and armed groups in Syria and Iraq have intensified attacks on Israeli and American targets.
But US officials have said that neither Hezbollah nor Iran wants an escalation and war.
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After Israel hit Iran’s consulate in Damascus at the beginning of April, Tehran retaliated with hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles.
The attack was the first-ever direct Iranian attack on Israel, which has for years targeted Iranian assets in Syria.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in a news conference on Sunday this week that the Iranian threat to the US and Israel’s interests is clear.
He added the US is working with Israel and other partners to protect against these threats and to stop escalation into an all-out regional war through diplomacy, force posture adjustments, deterrence, and use of force when necessary to protect our people and to defend our interests.
