MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Oman and Iran have signed agreements to expand two pipelines and an oil deposit along their maritime border, Oman’s energy minister said Saturday, less than two weeks after the Iranian president’s to the sultanate.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived on May 23 amid stalled foreign talks to revive a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, leaving the Islamic Republic under sanctions.
At the time, Oman’s official news firm reported that the countries had signed oil and gas-related memoranda, but did not provide details.
On Saturday, the firm quoted Oman’s Energy Minister Mohammed al-Rumhi as saying the agreements were “related to the progression of the two pipeline projects linking the two countries and the Hengam oil field. “
A deal was reached about two decades ago to allow Iran to supply fuel to Oman, but the allocation never materialized.
Sanctions against Iran have confusing efforts to execute this task and may also hinder the implementation of the new agreement.
Hengam’s oil box is located in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, near the United Arab Emirates.
Oman has close political and economic ties with Iran and mediated between Tehran and Washington in the initial nuclear deal in 2015.
Intermittent talks began in April last year to reinstate the deal, after the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed scathing sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to live up to its commitments.
The 2015 deal freed Iran from crippling economic sanctions over restrictions on its nuclear activities.
The sultanate, which faces Iran on the other side of the Gulf of Oman, has suffered economic hardship from the pandemic, with GDP falling by 6. 4% in 2020 and a dizzying rise in public debt.
It saw rare protests against high unemployment and layoffs last year.
Raisi’s stopover in Oman is his moment in a Gulf country since he took office in August 2021.
He visited Qatar in February, met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and participated in a convention of gas-exporting countries.
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