US and Iranian diplomats are meeting in Rome this weekend for further talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, in what looks set to be another forlorn bid to rein in the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism – and a regime which makes North Korea look like a paragon of good faith.
In some ways, the new talks feel like déjà vu. The Gulf state of Oman has resumed its role as the go-between for the US and Iran, with its embassy in Rome providing the venue for the latest phase of talks and its foreign minister Badr Al Busaidi mediating what the Iranians insist will be ‘indirect’ negotiations.
Oman has maintained a Swiss-style foreign policy of ‘positive neutrality’ for decades and its backroom shuttle diplomacy to try to quell conflict between the US and Iran dates back to the Iranian revolution in 1979.
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