News Analysis: FM's Gulf tour highlights Iran's attempt to downplay nuclear deal's significance

TEHRAN, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian rounded out a three-day tour of four Gulf Arab states last week, during which he met with leaders and high-ranking officials of Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to discuss bilateral relations and regional cooperation.

During his stay in Qatar and Oman, Amir-Abdollahian and the two states' authorities touched on nuclear negotiations, in which Doha and Muscat have frequently acted as mediators between Tehran and the West.

Analysts and media believed that the foreign minister's regional tour was part of Tehran's ongoing efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, reduce the impact of nuclear-related sanctions and downplay the deal's significance in the country's foreign policy.

Iran and the United States have been holding indirect talks, mainly mediated by Oman, Qatar and the European Union, in an effort to keep tensions in check amid the rise and fall in hopes for the revival of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The latest of such efforts is the meeting between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani and EU coordinator for the nuclear talks Enrique Mora in Doha, seeking to cool nuclear tensions with mutual understanding to end the deadlock.

In an analysis published on the Iran Press news website on Friday, Seyed Razi Emadi, an expert in West Asia affairs, said the recent meeting between Bagheri-Kani and Mora suggested that reaching an agreement on the nuclear deal's revival with the West was on the foreign minister's agenda during his visits to the Arab states, particularly Oman and Qatar.

However, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has on several occasions stressed that Iran will not tie its fate to the JCPOA, and is pursuing different policies to render the sanctions ineffective through expanding relations with different countries despite its diplomatic efforts to revive the nuclear deal and lift the sanctions.

Upon his arrival in Doha, Amir-Abdollahian said in a tweet that his visits aim to strengthen relations with neighboring countries and follow up on previous agreements signed with these nations.

Commenting on the Iranian government's recent diplomatic efforts and their outcomes in an interview with Iran Daily, Iranian lawmaker Ahmad-Hossein Fallahi said the government's policy of boosting ties with neighbors and other states has considerably improved Iran's economic situation, enhanced its global status and eliminate the necessity of attaching significance to the JCPOA revival talks.

An analysis of the foreign minister's regional tour published in Iran's Kayhan newspaper on Saturday echoed the lawmaker's views, saying the incumbent Iranian government has refrained from putting all its eggs in one basket by promoting interactions with other countries, primarily regional states, based on mutual respect.

In another analysis published on Tuesday, Kayhan wrote that Iran has become the "center of diplomacy" in the region without the JCPOA.

The Raisi administration has prioritized the expansion of relations with neighbors and emerging world powers in its foreign policy, while seeking solutions to counter sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies by advocating multilateralism in the international community, it added.

The trend indicates that Iran is pursuing regional diplomacy in parallel with "nuclear diplomacy," Iran Newspaper wrote on Thursday.