World
Is Oman’s hard work with Yemen and Saudi Arabia paying off?
On April 9, Saudi and Omani delegations met Houthi representatives in Sanaa to debate a everlasting ceasefire in Yemen. After greater than eight years of warfare within the impoverished nation, the conferences have led some to have cautious optimism that the preventing in Yemen could also be winding down.
Though the general public nonetheless doesn’t know a lot concerning the pending settlement, sources have indicated that it could embody a six-month ceasefire, a reopening of borders and ports, cost of salaries for Yemenis throughout the nation, reparation and compensation measures, and a withdrawal of all overseas forces from Yemen earlier than a political course of begins.
Such developments, ought to they be true, would present the extent to which Omani efforts to carry a negotiated resolution to the struggle in Yemen have been productive.
As the one Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member that refused to participate in army operations in Yemen, Oman has had a novel balancing position within the Arabian Peninsula. Representatives of the completely different Yemeni factions, Saudi, Iranian, Russian, and American diplomats, in addition to United Nations officers, have been to Muscat a number of instances lately to debate the Yemeni file.
“For the reason that starting … Oman has been the voice of motive, saying early on that army intervention wasn’t the reply in Yemen however somewhat peaceable diplomatic political talks,” Afrah Nasser, a non-resident fellow at Arab Heart Washington DC, informed Al Jazeera. “Eight years on, Oman is demonstrating that it has at all times been proper.”
The Saudis appeared able to resolve their battle with the Iran-backed Houthis as a result of the price of continued warfare was too excessive. “Saudi Arabia has determined they need out of this struggle,” Abdullah Baabood, an Omani scholar and visiting professor at Waseda College in Tokyo, informed Al Jazeera. “It’s too pricey for them, economically and politically.”
Muscat: Diplomatic heavy lifter
When an settlement between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia was introduced final month, China, justifiably, acquired huge quantities of credit score for brokering it, main some commentators to attribute a lot of the current progress in Yemen to Beijing.
However with regards to Riyadh-Tehran relations and the way they mirror on the state of affairs in Yemen, it was Muscat’s years of diplomatic heavy lifting that permit progress occur.
It has been working to bridge variations between the events concerned since 2015. With Iraq, it facilitated talks between the Saudis and Iranians that started in Baghdad in April 2021.
“The Omanis have been crucial companions in efforts to advance an finish to the Yemen battle … particularly in sustaining an open dialogue with the Houthis,” Gerald Feierstein, former US ambassador to Yemen, informed Al Jazeera. “Their mediation of Saudi-Houthi talks has been central to advancing initiatives to resolve excellent points associated to the coalition intervention within the Yemen battle.”
Oman enabled Saudi Arabia to pursue a dignified exit from Yemen, after reaching a compromise with the Houthis turned extra essential. With Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman centered on growing the dominion and making Imaginative and prescient 2030 profitable, drone and rocket assaults from Yemen made Saudi Arabia a much less enticing possibility for overseas corporations and traders.
“Beforehand, Riyadh taunted Oman for refusing to affix the Saudi-led coalition in 2015, Saudi now recognises that Muscat’s position is essential in its efforts to carry the struggle to a detailed,” mentioned Veena Ali-Khan, a Yemen researcher on the Worldwide Disaster Group. “In Muscat’s view, Saudi is lastly listening to them and prioritising a diplomatic strategy, after eight years of battle.”
By rising nearer to Saudi Arabia since Sultan Haitham took the helm in early 2020 and sustaining relations with the Houthis and their backers in Tehran, Muscat is in a novel place vis-à-vis the Yemen state of affairs. The April 2022 truce and its extensions, for instance, have been solely doable due to Oman.
“Oman has performed a vital position on this by getting the 2 sides to speak and opening the … alternative for them to barter and, at instances, perhaps placing some stress on the Houthis to come back to an settlement,” defined Baabood.
“Oman’s persistence in exhibiting the significance of peace talks is lastly yielding outcomes,” added Nasser. “Apart from performing as a peacemaker and bringing the opponents to direct talks, Oman’s position right now is … like a face-saver. The opponents have been determined to have this third occasion that might save their faces … an finish to the battle should include no victory or loss introduced.”
Oman’s position within the Center East
Muscat’s friends-of-all overseas coverage has outlined the nation regionally since Sultan Qaboos ascended to the throne in 1970 – Oman has by no means severed relations with any nation since Qaboos took energy and the sultanate has a file of neutrality in regional and worldwide conflicts.
“Omanis have set a file for efficient but in addition quiet diplomacy for almost 5 many years and demonstrated uncommon accomplishments so far,” Joseph A Kéchichian, a senior fellow on the King Faisal Centre in Riyadh, informed Al Jazeera.
Sharing a 300km (187-mile) border with Yemen, Oman will at all times have vested pursuits in its neighbour. “Yemen is the sultanate’s again yard and … one among 4 strategic areas of concern [besides Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia], so what occurs south of the border issues an awesome deal. Sultan Haitham and his group of advisers, most of whom have been skillfully educated by his predecessor, have been closely concerned in secret discussions with the Houthis,” mentioned Kéchichian.
What Oman seeks in Yemen is stability that doesn’t threaten the sultanate’s personal safety. “For Oman, a profitable decision of the battle would imply an finish to the civil struggle in Yemen, a return to some semblance of nationwide governance in Sanaa that will preserve good relations with all of Yemen’s neighbours, and alternatives for Yemenis to realize financial stability,” defined Feierstein.
“From a nationwide safety perspective, the Omanis wish to see safety on their border with Yemen strengthened and stability, specifically in Yemen’s japanese governorates of Mahra and Hadramawt, to stop any spillover into Oman,” he added.
“Muscat needs the form of peace and safety that can eradicate regional tensions and, consequently, encourage the creation of wealth for everybody,” Kéchichian informed Al Jazeera. “Its agenda … is to be on pleasant phrases with buddies and on appropriate phrases with foes.
It seeks concord when doable however believes that it should at all times function from a place of power, which is why it takes its defence duties severely, even when budgetary constraints restrict its outlook. It is a subtle strategy that goals to indicate outcomes to its residents, neighbours, and world powers. The outcomes are rewarding because the nation earns worldwide respect.”
World
Israel moves in on north Gaza Hamas stronghold, pounds Rafah without advancing
World
What to know about how much the aid from a US pier project will help Gaza
A U.S.-built pier is in place to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, but no one will know if the new route will work until a steady stream of deliveries begins reaching starving Palestinians.
The trucks that will roll off the pier project installed Thursday will face intensified fighting, Hamas threats to target any foreign forces and uncertainty about whether the Israeli military will ensure that aid convoys have access and safety from attack by Israeli forces.
TEMPORARY FLOATING PIER FOR GAZA AID COMPLETED, WILL MOVE INTO POSITION ONCE WEATHER LETS UP: PENTAGON
Even if the sea route performs as hoped, U.S, U.N. and aid officials caution, it will bring in a fraction of the aid that’s needed to the embattled enclave.
Here’s a look at what’s ahead for aid arriving by sea:
WILL THE SEA ROUTE END THE CRISIS IN GAZA?
No, not even if everything with the sea route works perfectly, American and international officials say.
U.S. military officials hope to start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, growing quickly to about 150 trucks a day.
Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other aid officials have consistently said Gaza needs deliveries of more than 500 truckloads a day — the prewar average — to help a population struggling without adequate food or clean water during seven months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has hindered deliveries of food, fuel and other supplies through land crossings since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel launched the conflict in October. The restrictions on border crossings and fighting have brought on a growing humanitarian catastrophe for civilians.
International experts say all 2.3 million of Gaza’s people are experiencing acute levels of food insecurity, 1.1 million of them at “catastrophic” levels. Power and U.N. World Food Program Director Cindy McCain say north Gaza is in famine.
At that stage, saving the lives of children and others most affected requires steady treatment in clinical settings, making a cease-fire critical, USAID officials say.
At full operation, international officials have said, aid from the sea route is expected to reach a half-million people. That’s just over one-fifth of the population.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR THE SEA ROUTE NOW?
The U.S. plan is for the U.N. to take charge of the aid once it’s brought in. The U.N. World Food Program will then turn it over to aid groups for delivery.
U.N. officials have expressed concern about preserving their neutrality despite the involvement in the sea route by the Israeli military — one of the combatants in the conflict — and say they are negotiating that.
There are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food to those who need it most, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.
U.S. and international organizations including the U.S. government’s USAID and the Oxfam, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee nonprofits say Israeli officials haven’t meaningfully improved protections of aid workers since the military’s April 1 attack that killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization.
Talks with the Israeli military “need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don’t think we’re there yet,” Korde told reporters Thursday.
Meanwhile, fighting is surging in Gaza. It isn’t threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, Pentagon officials say, but they have made it clear that security conditions could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily.
The U.S. and Israel have developed a security plan for humanitarian groups coming to a “marshaling yard” next to the pier to pick up the aid, said U.S. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command. USAID Response Director Dan Dieckhaus said aid groups would follow their own security procedures in distributing the supplies.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have moved into the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah as part of their offensive, preventing aid from moving through, including fuel.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that without fuel, delivery of all aid in Gaza can’t happen.
WHAT’S NEEDED?
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.N. and aid groups have pressed Israel to allow more aid through land crossings, saying that’s the only way to ease the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. They’ve also urged Israel’s military to actively coordinate with aid groups to stop Israeli attacks on humanitarian workers.
“Getting aid to people in need into and across Gaza cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Thursday.
“To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza — and for that, we need access by land now,” Haq said.
U.S. officials agree that the pier is only a partial solution at best, and say they are pressing Israel for more.
WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?
Israel says it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says ongoing fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery.
Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza. It said a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods.
World
Slovakian ministers blame media and opposition for attack on PM Fico
Slovakia’s interior minister refrained from specifying the motivation behind the attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico but pointed fingers at media outlets and the opposition, urging them to reflect on how they present information.
Slovakian authorities charged a man with attempted premeditated murder on Thursday after he shot Prime Minister Robert Fico five times in the central town of Handlova.
The assault left the longstanding leader in a serious but stable condition.
“The attempt on Fico’s life was politically motivated,” Slovakia’s Interior Minister Matuš Šutaj-Eštok said during a news conference on Fico’s shooting.
Eštok said the suspect, believed to be 71, was a “lone wolf” and did not belong to any political party but had previously taken part in anti-government protests.
The minister did not specify what the motivation was, but blamed media outlets and the opposition.
“It was information that you have recently presented. The way you presented them, on that I think each of you can reflect,” he said.
Slovakia’s President-elect Peter Pellegrini said he had only been allowed to speak with Fico for a few minutes “because his current condition really requires peace and quiet without any other external distractions.”
Pellegrini wished Fico “a great deal of strength in the struggle ahead of him because he is facing a very difficult period indeed.”
The president-elect called on political parties to suspend or scale back their campaigns for European elections, which will be held June 6-9.
The populist leader had been attending a political event in Handlova when the shooting took place, sending shockwaves through the central European country.
Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond. His return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union and NATO members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course – particularly on Ukraine.
At the start of Russia’s invasion, Slovakia was one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters. Fico halted arms deliveries to Ukraine when he returned to power, his fourth time serving as prime minister.
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