Iran’s top security official in Oman following nuclear talks with US

The trip by Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, comes amid diplomatic efforts to avert war.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has arrived in Oman in the wake of talks held in the country between Tehran and Washington over the former’s nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.

Larijani, a close adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is due to meet Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the chief intermediary in the talks, as well as Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

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The agency said “discussions over the latest regional and international developments” were on the agenda for Larijani’s visit to Muscat, “as well as ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Iran and Oman”.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said that some analysts were interpreting the visit, on the back of the recent talks in the country, as “as a positive sign indicating a sort of progress” in efforts to advance the negotiations.

Oman hosted talks on Iran’s nuclear programme last week aimed at avoiding a conflict between Tehran and Washington, amid surging tensions and a growing US military build-up in the region.

It was an outcome of concerted diplomatic efforts in the region to avert a conflict. A second round of talks has been confirmed, but a date has not been announced.

IRNA reported on Tuesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had held a series of phone calls with his counterparts in Turkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to brief them on the latest developments in the indirect negotiations with Washington in Muscat.

Iran hints at uranium dilution

Both sides have given mixed signals about their progress in the negotiations.

However, on Monday, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said Tehran was open to diluting its highly enriched uranium if the United States ends sanctions, signalling flexibility on a key US demand.

Eslami said the prospects of Iran diluting its 60 percent enriched uranium, a threshold close to weapons-grade, would hinge on “whether all sanctions would be lifted in return”, IRNA reported.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Iran to be subject to a total ban on enrichment, a condition unacceptable to Tehran.

Washington has demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile – estimated last year by the United Nations nuclear agency at more than 440kg – of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent fissile purity, a small step away from the 90 percent ⁠that is considered weapons-grade.

Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran on Sunday, had signalled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be allowed to enrich uranium.

“The Americans are now saying that they are looking for a package of comprehensive negotiations to include other controversial issues such as the ballistic missiles, defence capabilities, regional activities of the country,” said Asadi.

“Meanwhile ,Tehran is saying it wants talks to be focused and concentrated around the nuclear policy, and for the knots to be untangled one by one.”

Further talks expected

The date and venue of the next round of talks have yet to be announced, although Trump has said they will be held this week.

Iran and the US held five rounds of talks last year on curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, with the process stalling largely owing to disputes over uranium enrichment.

Washington then joined Israeli strikes on Iran in June, targeting the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear facilities with bunker-buster hits.

Since those strikes, Tehran has said it has halted enrichment activity.

It has always said its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

Netanyahu to meet Trump

Larijani’s Oman trip comes as Benjamin Netanyahu is due to head to the US on Tuesday for a meeting with Trump to discuss Washington’s ongoing negotiations with Iran, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday.

The planned meeting will be the seventh between Trump and Netanyahu since the US president returned to office last year.

Analysts have said Netanyahu will likely urge Trump to push Tehran on its ballistic missile programme, seen as a red line by Tehran.

The US has sought to include Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal in negotiations, but Tehran has ruled this out, with Araghchi insisting its missile programme is “non-negotiable”.