Oman has no plans to mediate between Iran and U.S. : Iranian minister

TEHRAN,Feb.21(MNA)--The Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi dismissed the news reports claiming that Oman plans to mediate between Iran and the United States to help defuse the tension between the two countries and that Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said has decided to hold a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in this regard. There is no plan for mediation, Salehi said. However, Iran and Oman have “special” relations and Sultan Qaboos has mediated in certain cases, including the cases of the people who had illegally entered Iran, he added. Salehi also said, “Iran and Oman are in constant dialogue.” The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on September 22, 2011, saying that Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, the two U.S. citizens who were arrested in Iran in 2009, had been released in an act of Islamic clemency and in response to requests by a number of senior foreign officials, including Sultan Qaboos. U.S. citizens Sarah Shourd, Bauer, and Fattal were arrested by border guards on July 31, 2009 after illegally entering Iran’s territory from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The three were charged with illegal entry and espionage. Shourd was released on a bail of $500,000 on September 14, 2010 in an act of Islamic clemency, while Bauer and Fattal were released on a bail of $500,000 each on September 21, 2010.