GoKawiilOman’s foreign minister has claimed the US has “lost control of its own foreign policy” and accused Israel of persuading Donald Trump’s administration to go to war with Iran – a conflict he described as a “catastrophe” and a “grave miscalculation”.
Writing in the Economist, Badr Albusaidi, the Omani minister who mediated the latest nuclear talks between Iran and the US, offered an unusually damning assessment of events leading up to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran and the war it has triggered across the Middle East.
“It was a shock but not a surprise when on 28 February – just a few hours after the latest and most substantive talks – Israel and America again launched an unlawful military strike against the peace that had briefly appeared really possible,” Albusaidi wrote.
Of all the Gulf countries, Oman was the most vocal and publicly proactive in trying to halt a US attack on Iran, although other states – including the UAE and Qatar – also worked hard to find diplomatic solutions and warned Trump that a war would be devastating for the region.
According to Albusaidi, Iran and the US had been on the “verge of a real deal” in nuclear negotiations held in Geneva in February, describing the talks as “substantive”.
View image in fullscreen The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, left, speaks with his Omani counterpart, Badr Albusaidi, in Muscat on 6 February. Photograph: AP
As revealed by the Guardian this week, a similar assessment had been made by the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who attended the final stages of the nuclear talks. According to sources, he had been surprised at the significant progress towards a permanent, substantive nuclear deal and judged that it was enough to halt a war between the two sides.
The US negotiating team consisted of Trump’s special envoy, the real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. They reportedly brought no experts with them.
Sources said the Iranians had agreed to highly significant concessions including a reduction and pause on their enrichment of uranium and also offered the US the chance to participate in a future civil nuclear programme, in exchange for a lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets.
A final phase of negotiations had been planned for the following week in Vienna, but 48 hours after the talks finished, the US and Israel began their strikes on Iran.
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