Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran. The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday,

Talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program appeared ready to leave the Middle East on Monday, as an Italian source and others said the next round of negotiations would take place in Rome.

That the talks are even happening represents a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.