Iran conducting indirect nuclear talks with US via Oman, says acting FM Kani

DUBAI: Iran's acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was quoted by the country's Etemad newspaper on Thursday as saying that Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the United States via Oman.

Kani's reported comments followed Monday's remarks by a White House spokesperson, who said that the US was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under its newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian.

"Indirect talks are being conducted through Oman but the negotiation process is confidential and its details cannot be recounted," Kani said after the US official's statement. 

Efforts were being made to leave "suitable grounds" for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.

Pezeshkian, a low-profile moderate who won Iran's run-off presidential vote last week, has said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the six powers that have been involved in now-stalled nuclear talks to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.

However, foreign policy in Iran is ultimately decided by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who warned last month prior to elections that "one who thinks that nothing can be done without the favour of America will not manage the country well."

Pezeshkian is taking office at a time of growing Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and over cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which have exacerbated disputes between Tehran and Washington.

In a letter to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, Pezeshkian reiterated on Wednesday Tehran's continued support for Palestinians against "the occupation of the Zionist regime (Israel)".

Hezbollah and Hamas are part of a group of Iranian-backed factions in the region known as the Axis of Resistance.