DUBAI - Oman's minister responsible for foreign affairs, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, said in Iran on Tuesday the United States wanted to reduce tensions in the region, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry tweeted that Bin Alawi, who was in Tehran for a conference, had offered condolences for the death of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in U.S. drone strike last week.

Oman maintains friendly ties with both the United States and Iran and has previously been a go-between for the two countries, which severed diplomatic ties after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli and Dahlia Nehme; Editing by Edmund Blair) ((maher.chmaytelli@thomsonreuters.com;))