Omani FM: Iran’s attacks on Gulf ‘inevitable’ response
Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, called for the US to extricate itself from the war in Iran, ascribing Iran’s attacks on the Gulf to an inevitable reaction to American aggression, reports Middle East Eye on March 19th.
Al Busaidi, who also mediated the latest failed negotiations between Iran and the US, wrote in the Economist that the US had miscalculated by allowing itself to be “drawn into” the conflict with Iran. He claimed: “Iran’s retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable, if deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable, result”.
“Faced with what both Israel and America described as a war designed to terminate the Islamic Republic, this was probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership.”
Since March 18th, Iran has launched several attacks on petrochemical and energy facilities across the Gulf, causing at least two fires. The attacks on Gulf countries have had a devastating effect on global energy prices and gas supplies, exacerbated by Iran’s closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz. The Omani foreign minister cautioned that instability was putting the Gulf’s economic ambitions in jeopardy, from its tourism and finance sectors to its flagship data centre projects.
“The effects of Iran’s retaliation are already being felt globally, as maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is severely disrupted, driving up energy prices and threatening deep recession,” he wrote. “If this had not been anticipated by the architects of this war, that was surely a grave miscalculation.” Furthermore, he emphasised that only Israel stood to gain materially by overthrowing the Islamic Republic, having little concern about who governs Iran subsequently. He said that it was “not America’s war” and that allies of the US needed to be frank with the country.
“That begins with the fact that there are two parties to this war who have nothing to gain from it, and that the national interests of both Iran and America lie in the earliest possible end to hostilities,” he wrote. “This is an uncomfortable truth to tell, because it involves indicating the extent to which America has lost control of its own foreign policy. But it must be told.”
Al Busaidi’s remarks follow Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi’s statement that strikes on Gulf states were carried out in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Middle East Eye, Maghrebi.org.
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