Politics
Iran security chief meets Oman ruler after US talks
- Iran’s Larijani discusses US talks during Oman visit.
- Iran slams Israel for sabotaging regional diplomatic efforts.
- Tehran and Washington resumed talks in Muscat after months.
Iran’s top security official met the Sultan of Oman in Muscat on Tuesday, days after a first round of talks there between officials from Washington and Tehran last Friday.
Ali Larijani, who heads the Supreme National Security Council, and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq “discussed the latest developments in the Iranian-American negotiations”, the official Oman News Agency said.
Larijani also met Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who mediated Friday’s indirect talks between US and Iranian officials, according to photos shared on Larijani’s official Telegram channel.
Larijani and Sultan Haitham also explored “ways to reach a balanced and just agreement between the two sides, and emphasised the importance of returning to the table of dialogue and negotiation”.
During his trip to Muscat, Larijani also met Mohammad Abdulsalam, the spokesperson for Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels.
Larijani will head to Qatar next, according to Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei.
The trip comes after Iran and the United States resumed negotiations in Oman on Friday for the first time since the 12-day Iran-Israel war last June, which was briefly joined by the US military.
Meanwhile, Iran warned Tuesday of “destructive” influence on diplomacy ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington for talks expected to focus on US negotiations with Tehran.
“Our negotiating party is America. It is up to America to decide to act independently of the pressures and destructive influences that are detrimental to the region,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.
“The Zionist regime has repeatedly, as a saboteur, shown that it opposes any diplomatic process in our region that leads to peace.”
- US has positioned a naval flotilla in the region.
- Iran says talks paved way for further discussions.
- Diplomacy follows major crackdown on protests in Iran.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that the US “will have to do something very tough” if no deal is finalised with Iran, as both sides prepare to resume talks and reports surface that he is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
The announcement comes after Oman facilitated last week’s indirect negotiations, which a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry said allowed Tehran to gauge Washington’s seriousness and showed enough consensus for diplomacy to continue.
Trump had already positioned one aircraft carrier in the region, raising fears of renewed military action. In the past year, he joined an Israeli bombing campaign and struck Iranian nuclear sites, and last month threatened intervention during Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests — though he ultimately held off.
In interviews with Israeli media, Trump made clear the stakes: “Either we reach a deal or we’ll have to do something very tough,” Israel’s Channel 12 quoted him as saying.
The date and venue of the next round of US-Iran talks have yet to be announced.
Trump told Channel 12 and Axios that he was also considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
The USS George Washington in Asia and the USS George HW Bush on the US east coast are the most likely candidates, officials have told Reuters, but each is at least a week away from the Middle East. The Pentagon could also deploy the Ford carrier from the Caribbean.
“After the talks, we felt there was understanding and consensus to continue the diplomatic process,” said the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei.
Baghaei said Tuesday’s trip to Oman by Ali Larijani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been pre-planned, and that Larijani would travel next to Qatar, which has also mediated in several Middle East crises.
Oil prices eased on Tuesday as traders remained focused on Iran-US tensions.
A Reuters analysis of satellite images showed a recent build-up of aircraft and other military equipment across the region.
In particular, US forces in Qatar’s al-Udeid, the biggest US base in the Middle East, put missiles into truck launchers as tensions with Iran ratcheted up since January, allowing them to be moved more quickly if needed.
Difference over missile stockpile talks
Oman’s state news agency said Larijani and Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq discussed ways to reach a “balanced and just” agreement between Iran and the US, stressing the importance of returning to dialogue to bridge differences and promote regional and global peace and security.
The US is seeking to expand the scope of negotiations with Iran beyond the nuclear issue to curb Iran’s ballistic missile programme, one of the biggest in the Middle East.
Tehran says its missile arsenal has been rebuilt since last year’s 12-day bombing campaign by Israel and the US, and that its stockpile is non-negotiable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use a meeting with Trump in Washington on Wednesday to push for any US-Iran deal to include limitations on Tehran’s missiles.
Baghaei said the US “must act independently of foreign pressures, especially Israeli pressures that ignore the interests of the region and even the US.”
In any negotiations, Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights, including enrichment, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said.
Washington has demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons-grade.
Vance says Trump will decide red lines
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, said on Monday: “The possibility of diluting 60% enriched uranium … depends on whether, in return, all sanctions are lifted or not.”
Asked whether the US would allow limited uranium enrichment by Iran, US Vice President JD Vance said during a visit to Armenia on Monday: “I think President Trump is going to make the ultimate determination about where we draw the red lines in the negotiations.”
Iran and the US held five rounds of talks last year on curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, with the process breaking down mainly due to disputes over uranium enrichment inside Iran.
Since Trump struck Iran’s facilities, Tehran has said it has halted enrichment activity. It has always said its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
- Rahman widely expected to be PM candidate of JI-led alliance
- Polling on February 12 after uprising ousted former pm Hasina.
- JI is in a close fight with Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
DHAKA: Shafiqur Rahman has long been on the margins of Bangladeshi politics, but his face now appears on posters and billboards across Dhaka, urging voters to elect the country’s first Jamaat‑e‑Islami‑led government in a general election on Thursday.
The 67‑year‑old doctor and JI chief has risen from near obscurity to be a serious contender for prime minister.
A JI-led coalition is expected to put up a close fight against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the upcoming elections.
Bangladesh votes on February 12 in its first national election since a Gen Z‑led uprising toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
Opinion polls suggest the once‑banned JI is heading for its strongest performance yet.
Under Hasina, authorities cracked down on the party, jailing top JI leaders, sentencing some to death, banning the party, and driving it underground.
Rahman was arrested in 2022 and jailed for 15 months.
But the 2024 uprising changed JI and Rahman’s fortunes.
Days after Hasina fled to India in August that year, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus eased curbs on the party and a court in 2025 lifted the ban, allowing the party, long forced to meet discreetly, to re‑emerge.
“We tried to raise our voice, but repeatedly it was suppressed,” Rahman told Reuters in December. “(After the uprising) we got a chance to come again to the surface.”
Family of doctors
Born in 1958 in the northeastern district of Moulvibazar, Rahman began his political life in a leftist student organisation before joining Islami Chhatra Shibir, the JI’s student wing.
He formally joined JI in 1984 and unsuccessfully contested national elections in 1996, 2001 and 2018. He became the chief of the party in 2020.
His wife, Amina Begum, served in parliament in 2018 and is also a doctor, like their two daughters and a son. Rahman is the founding chair of a family-owned hospital in the northeastern district of Sylhet.
JI describes its leader as a humble and sincere person who “leads a modest, disciplined life grounded in simplicity and approachability”.
Analysts say Shafiqur Rahman capitalised on the political vacuum after the uprising.
“In the month after the uprising, there was no visible leader in Bangladesh. Tarique Rahman was in exile in London,” said Dhaka University professor Shafi Md Mostafa.
“(Shafiqur) Rahman travelled across the country, gained media attention, and, within barely two years, became a frontrunner,” said Mostafa.
On the campaign trail, his speeches have resonated with some voters, presenting JI as a clean, moral alternative guided by Islamic values. In December, the party allied with the Gen Z National Citizen Party, widening its appeal among younger and less‑conservative voters.
Seen by some as a more moderate face of the JI, Rahman has tried to soften the party’s image by stressing governance, anti‑corruption and social justice. He has also promised equal treatment for all religions.
Rahman says JI is “moderate, we are flexible, we are reasonable”.
“But our principles are based on Islamic values, Quranic values,” he said. “The Quran is not only for Muslims, it is for the whole creation.”
- Iran slams Israel for sabotaging regional diplomatic efforts.
- Tehran and Washington resumed talks in Muscat after months.
- Previous negotiations collapsed after Israel-Iran conflict.
TEHRAN: Iran warned Tuesday of “destructive” influence on diplomacy ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington for talks expected to focus on US negotiations with Tehran.
“Our negotiating party is America. It is up to America to decide to act independently of the pressures and destructive influences that are detrimental to the region,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.
“The Zionist regime has repeatedly, as a saboteur, shown that it opposes any diplomatic process in our region that leads to peace.”
Tehran and Washington resumed talks in Muscat on Friday, months after earlier negotiations collapsed following Israel’s unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran last June, which triggered a 12-day war.
During the conflict, Israel targeted senior Iranian military officials, nuclear scientists, and nuclear sites, as well as residential areas.
The United States later joined the campaign, launching its own strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran responded with drone and missile attacks on Israel and by targeting the largest US military base in the Middle East, located in Qatar.
“The June experience was a very bad experience. Therefore, taking these experiences into account, we are determined to secure Iran’s national interests through diplomacy,” Baqaei said.
He insisted that Iran’s focus would remain strictly on the nuclear file in return for sanctions relief.
Tehran has repeatedly said it rejects any negotiations that extend beyond that issue.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli premier “believes any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles.”
The talks followed threats from Washington and the deployment of a US aircraft carrier group to the region after anti-government protests in Iran last month.
Iranian authorities said the protests, which erupted in late December over the rising cost of living, began as peaceful demonstrations before turning into “riots” involving killings and vandalism, which they said were inflamed by the United States and Israel.
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