New ruler vows to uphold peaceful policy
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES >> Oman’s new ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, vowed Saturday to uphold his predecessor Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s foreign policy approach, which steered the Arab country through choppy Persian Gulf waters by balancing close relations with both the United States and Iran.
The new ruler, who was Oman’s culture minister, spoke after being named successor to Sultan Qaboos, the Middle East’s longest-ruling monarch whose death was announced Saturday. He died at the age of 79 after years of an undisclosed illness.
Sultan Haitham’s message to Omanis and the world was clear: Oman would continue down the path laid by Qaboos as a facilitator of peace.
“We will follow the same line as the late sultan, and the principles that he asserted for the foreign policy of our country, of peaceful coexistence among nations and people, and good neighborly behavior of non-interference in the affairs of others,” he said in his first public remarks as sultan.
The 66-year-old shook hands with family members and top security brass before witnessing ceremonial cannon fire. The Al Said family has ruled Oman since the eighteenth century, and once ruled over Zanzibar too, off the coast of Tanzania.
Oman sits on the southeastern tip of the Arabian
Peninsula, with Iran to its east. It shares borders with Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Sultan Qaboos shaped Oman’s policy of diplomatic balancing. Under his leadership, Oman was a facilitator of talks between adversaries Iran and the United States. Oman is a close ally of Washington and viewed as a valuable regional player.
Qaboos’ choice of successor was a closely guarded secret believed to have been known only to the sultan, who did not have any children.
Qaboos, who came to power nearly 50 years ago when he deposed his father in a 1970 palace coup, refused to join the Saudiled coalition at war in Yemen and kept the country’s border with Yemen open.
Oman has also played a conciliatory role between the Houthis and their Gulf enemies, hosting peace talks and facilitating prisoner exchanges.
Oman did not join a Saudi- and Emirati-led boycott of neighboring Qatar, and has maintained relations with rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. The sultanate was the only Gulf Arab country that kept its embassy in Damascus open throughout Syria’s now 9-year civil war.
In 2018, the sultan hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a surprise visit, further cementing Oman’s strategic ability to be a facilitator and even mediator. In a tweet Saturday, Netanyahu said that the meeting was “unbelievably important and exciting,” and called the late sultan “a great leader who worked tirelessly to promote peace and stability in our region.”
In the capital Muscat, soldiers stood guard and troops stood with machine guns atop SUVs as Omanis gathered along a highway to see the motorcade carrying the sultan’s body for burial.
Thousands also gathered at the Sultan Qaboos Mosque where funeral prayers were held Saturday. The mosque is an architecturally stunning complex of white marble and manicured gardens that reflects how the sultan modernized his country without eschewing its cultural heritage or building towering skyscrapers like other neighboring Gulf capitals.
Following Islamic tradition, Qaboos was buried before nightfall. His successor was announced by afternoon Saturday.
“It is a sad day in Oman, but also represents a new beginning with a new leader,” a presenter on the state TV said soberly.
The speed and manner in which his successor was named suggest the Al Said family wanted to project a sense of unity, continuity and stability as tensions run high in the Persian Gulf, particularly between the U.S. and Iran in the last days of Sultan Qaboos’ life.
“The need for an Omani ‘neutral space’ for dialogue and message passing is more important than ever,” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said.