MUSCAT: Oman and Iran signed deals to develop two gas pipelines and an oil field along their maritime border, Oman’s energy minister said Saturday, less than two weeks after Iran’s president visited the sultanate.
The visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on May 23 came amid stalled international talks to revive a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, leaving the Islamic republic under sanctions.
At the time, the official Oman News Agency reported that the countries had signed memoranda of understanding concerning oil and gas, but did not provide details.

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council has approved a resolution extending the authorization for countries and regional organizations to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya suspected of violating the UN arms embargo on the troubled north African nation.
The vote on the French-sponsored resolution was 14-0, with Russia abstaining. The brief resolution extends the authorization for inspections for a year.
The monitoring effort has been carried out since March 2020 by an EU mission called Operation Irini, the Greek word for “peace.”

ANKARA: Turkey’s inflation climbed to its highest level since 1998, hitting an annual 73.5 percent in May, official data showed on Friday, an issue dogging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of elections next year.

LONDON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday held a phone call with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi, the US State Department said on Friday.
“The secretary thanked the foreign minister for Oman’s efforts to strengthen and extend the truce in Yemen,” Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
He added that both sides also discussed Iran and opportunities for greater cooperation on regional issues. 
Blinken also said that he was looking forward to hosting Albusaidi in Washington soon.

NEW YORK: New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris’s Louvre Museum.
The artifacts — which include a group of painted linen fragments, dated between 250 and 450 B.C., depicting a scene from the Book of Exodus — are worth more than $3 million, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
A New York state judge ordered their confiscation on May 19, a court document shows.