TEHRAN -- Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi has reaffirmed the sultanate’s policy of expanding ties with neighboring Iran, saying Muscat will continue its close interactions with Tehran under the administration of new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The top Omani diplomat, who is in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Iranian president, held a meeting with outgoing Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday.
Busaidi hailed great efforts made by Zarif to bolster relations with Oman during his tenure in the past eight years and said his country’s policy toward Iran is based on the enhancement of cooperation.
He added that Muscat would do its utmost to bring the views of the regional countries closer together in order to promote neighborly dialog.
Zarif, for his part, praised exemplary relations between Tehran and Muscat and the two sides’ efforts to strengthen cooperation, emphasizing the need for the policy to continue in ties with the next Iranian administration.
The top Iranian diplomat said the Islamic Republic’s principled policy is expanding ties with the neighboring countries.
Zarif paid a visit to Oman late in April, after his visits to Qatar and Iraq.
In a meeting in Muscat on April 29, Zarif and Omani Minister of Royal Office General Sultan bin Mohammed al Nu’amani discussed bilateral economic ties as well as major developments in the region, particularly the Yemeni crisis.
Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik Al Said late last month, Raisi said interaction and dialog with neighboring countries is top on the foreign policy agenda of his administration.
Speaker of Syrian’s Peoples’ Assembly, Hammouda Sabbagh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bisera Turković and Ghana’s Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Ibrahim Muhammed Awal arrived
in Tehran on Tuesday to attend Raisi’s swearing-in ceremony which is scheduled to be held on Thursday.
According to Iran’s official news agency IRNA, 115 officials from 73 countries have so far expressed their readiness to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Ten heads of state, 20 parliament speakers, 11 foreign ministers and 10 other ministers as well as parliamentarians are among the officials that plan to take part in the ceremony.
Heads and officials from 11 international and regional organizations, a representative of the United Nations chief, head of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), representatives from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), European Union, Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), Economic Cooperation Organization, Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation will also participate in the ceremony.