2024-03-16 02:40:50
A report by the American newspaper “The New York Times” revealed, on Friday, that the United States held secret negotiations with Iran at the beginning of this year, which dealt with the Gaza war and the related tensions in the Middle East region.
According to the newspaper, the negotiations took place on January 10 in Muscat, and each side had a clear request from the other, according to American and Iranian officials.
The United States wanted Iran to restrain its agents, by stopping Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and targeting American bases in Iraq and Syria. In return, Tehran asked Washington to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
During the negotiations, Omani officials exchanged messages back and forth between Iranian and American delegations sitting in separate rooms. The Tehran delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, opposite Brett McGurk, the US President’s coordinator for Middle East affairs, who led the Washington delegation.
The event, which was first reported by the Financial Times a few days ago, was the first time that Iranian and American officials held personal negotiations, albeit indirectly, in nearly 8 months.
American officials said that Iran requested the meeting to be held in January, and recommended that the Sultanate of Oman transfer its request to the United States.
Two Iranian officials, one of them from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Tehran confirmed during the talks that it does not control the activity of the factions affiliated with it, especially the Houthis, but it can use its influence to ensure that attacks are reduced by at least half, if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza, and not Before that.
However, no agreement was reached during the negotiations, and within hours following McGurk left Muscat, the United States led military strikes on multiple Houthi targets in Yemen on January 11.
In early February, the United States launched strikes on military bases linked to Iran in Iraq and Syria, in response to the killing of 3 American service members in an attack on a base in Jordan, launched by an Iraqi militia close to Iran.
On the other hand, attacks on US bases in Iraq have since ended, and only a small number of such attacks have been reported in Syria.
According to the New York Times, since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the United States and Iran have reassured each other that neither of them seeks a direct confrontation with the other, a position that was conveyed in messages that the two parties passed through intermediaries.
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