A negotiated deal between the United States and Iran to avert war “appeared really possible”, Oman’s foreign minister who mediated talks between the two sides said in an article published on Thursday, while blaming Israel for the ongoing conflict. Writing in The Economist, Badr Albusaidi abandoned the usual reserve of diplomatic language to call the war a “catastrophe” and said US President Donald Trump’s administration had “lost control of its own foreign policy”. Albusaidi claimed the US and Iran had been “on the verge of a real deal” on Iran’s nuclear programme twice over the last nine months, including in June last year when the process ended with Israeli-US attacks on the Islamic republic. He mediated a second round of indirect negotiations that resumed in Oman on February 6, with the final round held in Geneva on February 26. “It was a shock but not a surprise when on February 28th – 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.
Oman blames Israel for ongoing Mideast conflict
Published on: March 20, 2026 6:44 AM