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The Omani "Back Channel" to Iran and the Secrecy Surrounding the Nuclear Deal
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - A new book reveals some startling details about how the diplomacy with Tehran began in secret, long before reformers took power there. In Alter Egos, New York Times White House correspondent Mark Landler discloses the full extent of the Omani "back channel" to Iran that opened in May 2009, just four months after President Obama had taken office, when Dennis Ross, a top adviser to then-Secretary of State Clinton, met an Omani fixer named Salem ben Nasser al-Ismaily at the State Department. "Ismaily assured Ross he could bring the Iranians to the table" and that Oman would be "an ideal venue for secret negotiations."