MUSCAT: Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Oman on Monday as the 2 international locations signed a string of industry offers and as global talks on Tehran’s nuclear program hold within the steadiness, leaving the Islamic republic below sanctions. Raisi, on his 2d Gulf seek advice from since taking workplace in August, used to be greeted by means of Sultan Haitham bin Tareq on the airport and won a 21-gun salute on the royal palace, an Omani commentary mentioned.
Raisi’s one-day commute comes at a time when renewed talks on restoring a 2015 nuclear deal are at a stalemate. Oman performed a mediating function between Tehran and Washington within the build-up to the unique settlement. The international locations signed 12 memoranda of working out all the way through the seek advice from, together with within the fields of oil and fuel, shipping, schooling, industry and funding, reported the authentic Oman Information Company.
“Industry exchanges between the 2 international locations of Oman and Iran will support surely,” Raisi mentioned ahead of departure, in line with Iran’s state information company IRNA. “Each international locations are made up our minds to improve the extent of political and financial ties,” he added. A delegation of fifty Iranian businessmen travelled to Oman closing week, IRNA mentioned, including that Iran’s minister for roads and concrete building has introduced plans for a joint transport line and vacationer flights.
Oman may be in quest of to import fuel from Iran by means of construction an offshore pipeline between the 2 international locations, who’re discussing the improvement of joint fuel fields offshore. The sultanate, which faces Iran around the Gulf of Oman, continued financial ache all the way through the pandemic, with its GDP shedding 6.4 p.c in 2020 and executive debt hovering. It noticed uncommon protests over excessive unemployment and lay-offs closing 12 months.
Raisi visited Qatar in February, the place he met with Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and participated in a convention of fuel exporting international locations. Forestall-start talks to deliver Iran again to the 2015 deal curtailing its nuclear ambitions in go back for a lifting of sanctions that used to be deserted by means of former US president Donald Trump in 2018, started in April closing 12 months.
Previous on Monday, Raisi warned Iran will avenge the killing of a Innovative Guards colonel who used to be shot lifeless in Tehran. Assailants on bikes on Sunday hit Colonel Sayyad Khodai with 5 bullets as he sat in his automotive out of doors his house. Iran blamed “components connected to the worldwide conceitedness” – the Islamic republic’s time period for its arch enemy america and US allies together with the Zionist entity.
It used to be probably the most high-profile killing inside of Iran because the Nov 2020 homicide of best nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Raisi mentioned: “I insist at the severe pursuit (of the killers) by means of safety officers, and I haven’t any doubt that the blood of this nice martyr can be avenged. There is not any doubt that the hand of worldwide conceitedness may also be observed on this crime,” he added, echoing the Guards’ statement, ahead of he travelled to Oman.
A memorial provider for Khodai used to be scheduled in Tehran at 5:00 pm native time (1230 GMT) on Monday. The funeral will happen at 8:00 am (0330 GMT) on Tuesday in Imam Hossein Sq. in central Tehran, the Islamic Innovative Guards Corp mentioned in a commentary. The ideological arm of Iran’s army, the Guards described Khodai as a “defender of the sanctuary”, a time period used for many who paintings on behalf of Iran in Syria or Iraq.
Iran maintains vital political affect in each international locations and has sponsored President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria’s grinding civil struggle. State tv famous that Khodai used to be “identified” in Syria, the place Iran has said deploying “army advisers”. The authentic information company IRNA mentioned Khodai used to be killed by means of 5 bullets as he returned house Sunday at round 4:00 pm.
The company printed photos appearing a person slumped over within the motive force’s seat of a white automotive, with blood across the collar of his blue blouse and on his proper arm. He used to be strapped in together with his seatbelt, and the entrance window at the passenger aspect have been shot out. The Fars information company reported that the state prosecutor had visited the scene of the killing and ordered the “fast id and arrest of the authors of this legal act”.
The Guards mentioned they’d arrested a number of “thugs connected to the intelligence company of the Zionist regime,” as Iran calls its enemy. A commentary mentioned the suspects have been fascinated about a chain of crimes, together with “robberies, kidnappings and vandalism”. “The scale of this assassination are being investigated,” mentioned the spokesman for the joint chiefs of group of workers of the Iranian defense force, Normal Abolfazl Shakarji.
Khodai’s killing got here as negotiations between Iran and global powers to revive a frayed 2015 nuclear deal have stalled since March. Some of the major sticking issues is Tehran’s call for to take away the Guards from a US terrorism listing – a request rejected by means of Washington. The 2015 settlement gave Iran sanctions aid in trade for curbs on its nuclear program to forestall Tehran from growing an atomic bomb – one thing it has at all times denied short of to do. However the nuclear settlement used to be left striking by means of a thread after then US president Donald Trump pulled out of it unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed biting financial sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to start out rolling again by itself commitments. – AFP