20,000 sailors are stuck in the Gulf region + 1,000 people have died in Lebanon

“This haphazard war in the Middle East is plunging the region into chaos and driving up energy prices worldwide,” Meinl-Reisinger wrote on the online service X following the phone call. Attacks on energy infrastructure and civilian targets are unacceptable. “This war must end! It is not in our interest – and not in the interest of our transatlantic partner either.” The Omani Foreign Minister argued this very clearly in an opinion piece. The Foreign Minister further emphasized that she shared his view. “The United States has already achieved a lot in this war, but the price is constantly rising – for all of us.”

Al-Busaidi had written that there was nothing to be gained in this war for both the USA and Iran, reported the German Press Agency (dpa). This is an “inconvenient truth” because it shows that the USA has “lost control over its own foreign policy” to a certain extent. The military operations by Israel and the United States were “unlawful attacks on a peace that seemed possible for a short time,” al-Busaidi wrote in the opinion piece in the British magazine “The Economist.” The minister mediated the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the USA until the end of February.

Despite its mediation efforts, Oman has been the target of Iranian attacks several times since the beginning of the Iran War. According to a report, two people were killed last week by a falling drone. The country is also affected by attacks on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.

Meinl-Reisinger visited the Gulf region shortly before the start of the war at the end of January. It was already clear back then that Austria and Oman stood for a policy of dialogue and international rules. “Together we are now focusing on de-escalation: the solution can only be diplomatic,” she emphasized on X.