There’s not a lot of good news coming out of the Middle East these days, so I thought I’d share something from the Christian Science Monitor that was printed shortly before Hamas’ October 7th attacks. In an editorial titled Big Thanks for a Mideast Mediator, the CSM’s editorial board praises the country of Oman for its work in prisoner swaps between the US and Iran, helping Egypt and Saudi Arabia renew ties with Iran, and for facilitating talks that may resolve the Yemen War. The article quotes Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi as follows:
Our neutrality is not passive. It’s constructive, it’s positive, it’s proactive. We really stick to the principle of, how do we crate a sustainable environment of peace and security and stability so that our generations can prosper.
What a great way to discuss the active neutrality of mediators. And of course Oman has a stake in the outcomes of these regional issues, as they don’t want the effects of these conflicts, or the conflicts themselves, to spill into their boundaries.
Also, the piece has another great tip for mediators. It describe one of Oman’s leading mediation principles as follows: “to presume all players in a negotiation operate from integrity and good intentions.” This is what we teach regularly, and it’s great to see a nation engaging it’s mediation efforts in this way.
