Oman: Muscat secures release of Iranian scientist held in US

Oman again took on the role of mediator in a dispute between Washington and Tehran, this time over an Iranian scientist held in California for more than a year on charges of violating sanctions. Mojtaba Atarodi, a 55-year-old associate professor in the electrical engineering department at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, touched down in Muscat on 26 April on his way home. The Omani foreign ministry said the government had worked with US officials to speed up the case.