In a nod to preventing another war in the Middle East, Iran and the United States held upbeat talks Saturday – but not in the same room. Both accepted they first need a bridge-builder rather than negotiate face-to-face. Emotions run high over topics such as how to stop the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear program and whether to lift U.S. sanctions on Iran’s distressed economy.
The two sides relied on one of the world’s best go-betweens: the foreign minister of Oman, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi. His tranquil Muslim country on the Arabian Peninsula has a history of not dividing the world into enemies and friends. He played the intermediary during the talks in Oman, not only delivering messages back and forth but also listening for openings for further dialogue. He will be at it again this Saturday for a second round, this time in Rome.
“Omanis appear to have an inexhaustible supply of patience and persistence, which may well be needed given the gap in the negotiating positions of the American and Iranian sides,” wrote regional expert Jonathan Campbell-James for the Lowy Institute.
What accounts for Oman’s role as a trusted mediator? It is more than its relative neutrality. Mr. al-Busaidi explains that he tries to see people as “though we were as them, to see the world through their eyes.” He assumes their integrity.
He said in a speech last year that the world remains stuck in Cold War-era binary thinking. “There’s a tendency to think and act as though the world can be neatly organised into two,” he said. “There is good and evil. An axis of evil on the one hand and the guardians of prosperity on the other.”
“This comes from a failure to come to terms with the reality of a multipolar world. History has moved on faster than we have. We need to catch up with history.”
Especially in the Middle East, he said, a community’s identity cannot be sharply defined by religion. “Bad and good just aren’t helpful categories when trying to make sense of a complex and dynamic situation,” he said. “Only if you talk to [people] and listen to them, can you find out what their interests and perspectives really are, and start to work out how to engage deeply with them.”
