U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt praised Oman on Wednesday for working towards regional peace.
Citing a recent second public statement by the country’s foreign affairs ministry’s secretary-general, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, Greenblatt wrote, “We applaud #Oman’s courageous call for deeper relations between #Israel and its Arab neighbors … This kind of leadership helps lay the groundwork for a lasting peace agreement that benefits everyone in the region.”
Busaidi said during an address at the fourth Mediterranean Dialogues in Rome last weekend, “The Arab states need to come to terms with the reality that Israel is a fact of life in the region, and as such it should share the rights as well as obligations.”
The comment, reported by The Jerusalem Post, was not acknowledged in Oman, nor was it reported by local media in the country contacted by JewishPress.com.
“We are all part of one region and we have to come to terms with that reality,” Busaidi said. “The only way to really reach a situation of a sustainable degree of stability is that we have to reach one another and talk and translate that talk into concrete action. It is good to turn an enemy into a friend.”
The Trump administration is preparing to roll out its Middle East peace plan sometime in the next several months; sources have said it is likely to be revealed sometime in January 2019.
