Solve conflicts through trust, dialogue: Omani Foreign Minister

Muscat: Oman’s policy of solving conflict through dialogue and trust will help lead to long-term stability, the country’s Foreign Minister has said. Badr Al Busaidi added that diplomatic solutions to resolve conflicts need to include everyone affected by it for them to truly end. Otherwise, he explained, there is a chance of disagreements flaring up once again.  

“I cannot stress, more importantly, that dialogue is always difficult, but it does build confidence at the end of the day, and it does build trust,” he said. “In dialogue, one may discover that parties have an interest in a solution and that multiple perspectives may desist in finding one. “But most importantly, it shows that solutions include everyone,” the Foreign Minister added. “Any resolution to a conflict or ongoing source of instability needs a full buy-in. A solution that depends on excluding one party or another may well prove to be unsustainable.”

Badr Al Busaidi was speaking during an interview with the Atlantic Council, an organisation that aims to solve global problems by building partnerships with the US and other countries. “For this reason, Omani foreign policy has always sought to encourage and maintain dialogue across the widest range of parties possible,” he added. “We believe in seeking to form partnerships based on mutual understanding, rather than the kind of alliances that tend towards the formation of blocs or opposing sides.”

He went on to say, “This is why Oman has chosen not to participate in such boycotts or blockades. It lies behind the Sultanate’s reluctance to think of regional tensions in such oversimplified and divisive distinctions.” The Foreign Minister was speaking to Marc Sievers, the former ambassador of the United States to Oman, and a member of the Atlantic Council. During his interview, he explained how Oman first needed to unite itself internally, before taking on its role as a regional peacemaker and negotiator.

“I always believed throughout my life and my career that one must always lead by example,” he said.
“Peace building has to start from within first. This is exactly what Oman did 50 years ago, and managed to forge not just peace within itself, but with all its neighbours and the rest of the world. “Now, if you look at a map of the world, this is one of the few countries that has no political problems with anyone else on that map,” Al Busaidi said. “It is natural to believe that when we talk about peace building, it is easier said than done. Almost any regional conflict can have international dimensions.”

“This potential for the internationalisation of conflict also points to one of the most important tools as our disposal, as we seek to limit and contain conflicts, and eventually bring them to a peaceful resolution,” he explained. “That is done through dialogue.”