{"id":62242,"date":"2026-10-26T19:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T19:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/?p=62242"},"modified":"2026-10-26T19:47:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T19:47:45","slug":"minister-calls-on-gulf-states-to-take-responsibility-for-their-own-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/62242\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister calls on Gulf states to take responsibility for their own security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, Foreign Minister of the Sultanate of Oman<\/a> has called on Gulf states to take collective responsibility for their own security through an inclusive regional framework.<\/p>\n

He said this framework must bring together all six Gulf Cooperation Council states<\/a>, alongside Iran and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s exclusion from regional security arrangements, he said, had carried profoundly negative consequences for the region as a whole.<\/p>\n

In a lecture entitled \u201cInclusive Security in the Gulf\u201d delivered at Girton College, at the University of Cambridge<\/a> in the UK, to an audience of more than 100 diplomats and foreign policy specialists, the Minister began by speaking of the positive outcomes of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik<\/a>\u2019s State visit to the UK at the invitation of His Royal Highness King Charles III<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful, to the King, he said, \u201cfor recognising in his State Banquet address Oman\u2019s \u2018constructive neutrality\u2019 and its \u2018noble efforts\u2019 as a trusted interlocutor in supporting free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister went on to call for a new regional dialogue among the Gulf States, with a non-aggression pact between all eight states as its central goal.<\/p>\n

He described such a pact as an essential prerequisite for a security framework that could build trust, address shared challenges and support lasting stability.<\/p>\n

The Minister said the security of Oman depends on the security of its neighbours. This understanding guides Oman\u2019s efforts to resolve conflicts, strengthen confidence and extend peace across the region.<\/p>\n

He argued that longstanding reliance on external powers had limited the Gulf states\u2019 ability to develop collective arrangements rooted in their own needs.<\/p>\n

External interests had also complicated efforts to resolve differences concerning Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and secure free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The Minister rejected the idea of a fundamental antagonism between Iran and the Arab states of the Gulf, pointing to centuries of peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Persians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of whether you\u2019re friendly or hostile to Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cAny Gulf security architecture that doesn\u2019t include them is inherently unstable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Recalling the November 1976 meeting in Muscat of the Foreign Ministers of all eight Gulf states, he called for its ambition of collective regional security to be renewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting can be reconvened,\u201d he said, calling for an ambitious agenda that would include a shared understanding of arrangements for maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The Minister said external partnerships should continue, while regional states assume primary responsibility for their security.<\/p>\n

He said it was not necessary to convince friends and allies beyond the region about the need for the Gulf states to take responsibility for devising, developing and implementing a new regional security structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be useful\u2026 but it\u2019s not essential,\u201d he explained, adding:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is that the solution doesn\u2019t depend on friends and allies beyond the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expressed hope that partnerships with countries outside the region would increasingly focus on economic cooperation and investment across all eight countries.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging longstanding and recent causes of mistrust, he said the difficulties should not delay the first steps towards dialogue.<\/p>\n

He concluded by speaking of a \u201cgrowing shared recognition\u201d that a future security framework for the Gulf will have to involve all eight states of the Gulf and that such a framework can no longer rely on the cooperation of external partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not mean that external partnerships should be abandoned. It is just that their role in the regional security architecture can no longer be primary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Gulf steps up, inclusive regional security \u2013 the vision of 1976 \u2013 can be achieved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To view the full text of the lecture click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sayyid Badr argues that a new security framework should include all six Gulf States and Iran and Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":62292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[252,256,263,264,359,1006],"class_list":["post-62242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-gcc-en","tag-his-majesty-sultan-haitham-en","tag-iran-en","tag-iraq-en","tag-united-kingdom-en","tag-strait-of-hormuz-en"],"acf":{"fm_post_excerpt_app":"Sayyid Badr argues that a new security framework should include all eight Gulf States"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62242"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62298,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62242\/revisions\/62298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fm.gov.om\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}