From ‘Indispensable’ Ally to Target of Annihilation

When the United States was looking for a way to talk to Iran about a nuclear deal more than a decade ago, it turned to Oman, asking the country to do something it had quietly done for years: make an impossible conversation possible. Because Washington and Tehran had no diplomatic relations, the U.S. felt that the most promising back channel to get a conversation started led through Muscat. Iran was skeptical but willing to sit down with U.S. officials, provided there was some very particular…