MUSCAT: Oman has called for an urgent international conference dedicated to recognising Palestinian statehood, at which Hamas would be included.
At a lecture in the UK on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al Busaidy criticised world leaders for their delay in recognising the state of Palestine, and urged an emergency conference to be held.
“The world has deferred the question of Palestinian statehood for far too long,” he told the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies on Friday. "Too many of those who speak today in favour of a two-state solution regard this as an objective to be achieved in the distant future. “It has to be done on an urgent basis. The world can’t afford any more violence and we need a Palestinian state.
"Hamas must have a seat at the negotiating table. Only through dialogue can we reach a common understanding for the benefit of all." Sayyid Badr said western powers are maintaining a “cold war mentality” that led them to see the world in terms of “binary opposition, zero-sum games and elective communication".
Non-state actors such as Hamas were part of a new, “multipolar world”, and western powers would need to engage with them to ensure peace, he said.
“There is failure to come to terms with the reality of a multipolar world," he said. "This will involve breaking what for many has been the habit of a lifetime." Western powers had adopted a “sectarian logic” of the Middle East, in which they assumed that people were driven by their religious identities, Sayyid Badr said.
“It assumes that people of the region are ... simply following the sectarian script; they’re not used to making the independent judgment that people in the West are used to making,” he said. The proposed international conference must reject binary or sectarian visions in order to succeed, Sayyid Badr added. The recognition of Palestine was a key part to peace in the region, he said.
“The creation of a Palestinian state is an existential necessity. We can return to the hopeful path of the Arab Nahda [Enlightenment], and one of its hopes can be Jerusalem." In the carefully argued lecture, the Foreign Minister said that new thinking is needed to adapt to the realities of the modern multipolar world.
“History has moved on faster than we have. We need to catch up with history." Sayyid Badr also called for reform of the United Nations Security Council, arguing that its voting structure is a relic of the Cold War. “It is not properly multilateral. The veto is part of a zero-sum logic and should be removed,” he said. In a speech at the dinner, the foreign minister conveyed the greetings of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik and his best wishes to the Centre in its work. The lecture and dinner were attended by diplomats, academics and distinguished foreign policy experts. For full text of the speech visit www.omanobserver.om
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