|
Oman: Diplomacy and economics in the Arabian Gulf
Real estate news By Matein Khalid
10 October 2007
The art of diplomacy was mission critical to regime survival from the moment Sultan Qaboos bin Said attained power in a palace coup in July 1970. Oman in 1970 was the quintessential Arab hermit kingdom, impoverished, afflicted with an insurrection in Dhofar armed by the powerful Marxist Leninist government of South Yemen and political unrest in Muscat supported by Baathist Iraq.
Oman’s foreign policy was designed to end the civil war, boost the legitimacy of the Sultanate and the Al Bu Said dynasty in the constellation of Arab politics, establish a modus vivendi with Saudi Arabia and Pahlavi Iran as the twin dominant powers of the Gulf and attract foreign aid in massive development programmes designed to improve the population’s medieval standard of living.
Pragmatic, independent, with a penchant for bold initiatives and calculated risk taking, Oman’s foreign policy has been extraordinarily successful in attaining the Sultanate’s strategic economic, military and security objectives. Sultan Qaboos had no choice but to invite Britain, the Shah of Iran and the Jordanians to send combat troops to assist the Omani armed forces in defeating the Dhofar rebels. The war in Dhofar was the first proxy war in the Arabian Peninsula between the West and the Soviet Union as South Yemen, the only Marxist regime in the Arab world, was a client of the Kremlin. Oman also secured financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, who viewed the poverty and ideological zeal of the Dhofari secessionists as a threat to the political status quo in the Gulf, a template of common regional destiny that was to culminate in the establishment of the GCC a decade later. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia also settled the Buraimi Oasis dispute with Abu Dhabi and Oman, enabling formal international border treaties to be concluded between the kingdom, the UAE and Oman in 1974.
Send tips or a Letter to the Editor to editor@updatere.com
|
