Omani foreign minister calls for Gulf non-aggression pact including Iran

Oman's foreign minister, Saeed Badr al-Busaidi, has called for a non-aggression pact between the eight Gulf states that would include Iran. He made the proposal in a speech at Girton College, Cambridge, and in an exclusive interview, as tensions involving the US, Israel and Iran remained high.

Al-Busaidi argued that Gulf countries should no longer leave their security to outside powers. 'We need to be in the driving seats. I think it is time that we are in the driving seats,' he said. He said he hoped Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states would see the wisdom of a regional approach. Geography, he added, had brought the region together, including Iran, and that fact would not go away.

The Omani minister was pressed on whether such a pact was realistic while many Gulf states host American military bases and rely on US security guarantees. He replied that it was for the regional countries to decide among themselves whether they wanted such an arrangement, and then to build a future that friends and allies could support.

He also said he was concerned by what he called the drums of war in Washington and Tel Aviv before the Israeli and American elections. He urged a return to the negotiating table. On Iran, he said he did not know what was now expected of it, noting that the nuclear file had been the main issue and that he understood from the Americans that facilities had been bombarded and eliminated.

Al-Busaidi said friends of the US had a responsibility to tell it the truth: that the path to peace was to resolve issues peacefully and in a civilised manner. He rejected the idea that conquest was the answer. Most people wanted peace, he said, even if a powerful minority with weapons and belligerence was shaping events.

His message to any incoming Israeli leader was direct. 'Leave Iran alone, focus on forging an amicable, just resolution to the Palestinian question,' he said, calling the Palestinian question the core issue.

Elliott Abrams, a former US special representative for Iran, offered a sharply different view. Asked about the Omani minister's call for Washington to leave the region alone, Abrams said the US had its own interests there. He said five successive presidents had pledged to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that Washington had allies in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel that it would not abandon.

Abrams said Saudi Arabia had a point in feeling exposed and left in the lurch by Washington. But he argued that Riyadh should adopt what he called the Emirati-Israeli view: that there would be no peace while the current regime in Tehran ruled. He said another round between Iran, the US and Israel was more likely than not, and that he did not see how permanent peace could be achieved with the current Iranian government.

On Israeli politics, Abrams said that if Netanyahu lost the election he would lack the legitimacy to start something with Iran unless he had Trump with him. He added that it was plausible Trump would decide the situation with Iran was unacceptable and hit it again. Abrams also criticised Trump's public endorsement of Netanyahu, saying similar interventions had backfired in Hungary and Brazil.