TEHRAN— Iran’s deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy visited Oman early on Tuesday to pursue bilateral economic cooperation between Tehran and Muscat.

During his meeting with the officials in Oman, Mehdi Safari exchanged views on development of cooperation in economic and commercial fields, investment, transportation and transit, and joint projects.

Safari met a number of high-ranking Omani officials, such as Taher Al-Omari, the head of the Omani Central Bank; Sheikh Khalifa Al-Harithi, the diplomatic deputy of the Omani foreign minister; and Abdulsalam Al-Murshedi, head of the Investment Organization of Oman.

In the meetings, opinions were exchanged regarding cooperation between the two countries in economic and commercial fields, investment, transportation and transit, and joint projects.

The visit comes as on October 1 reports broke out that Iran is due to receive 7$ billion of its assets frozen abroad.

The reports said that in recent weeks intensive negotiations have been held between Iran and the U.S. with the mediation of a regional country regarding the simultaneous release of Iranian and American prisoners, and also unfreezing seven billion dollars of the Iranian assets.

However, Iran has not yet accepted the declared accounts for the transfer of the blocked money due to banking considerations and has introduced new accounts for the purpose.

Many political pundits guessed the name of the “regional country” that mediated to be either Oman or Qatar. Safari’s visit has strengthened speculations that Oman has to do something with Iran receiving its frozen assets, as some of Iran’s foreign exchange revenues are in the Central Bank of Iran’s accounts in Oman.