MUSCAT: Oman’s Sultan Haitham on Tuesday appointed a new top diplomat, replacing the long-serving Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah in a government reshuffle.
Sultan Haitham, since his accession in January, has vowed to maintain Oman’s policy of neutrality and non-interference.
Badr Albusaidi, 60, was named foreign minister, a title held by the late Sultan Qaboos himself but with Alawi responsible for foreign affairs for the past two decades.
Albusaidi has been in the diplomatic service since the 1980s and held a number of posts, including foreign ministry secretary-general.
Sultan bin Salem bin Saeed Al-Habsi was appointed finance minister, a post also held by the sultan, and new faces were named to other key ministries, state media said.
Haitham bin Tariq was sworn in after modern Oman’s founding father, Sultan Qaboos, died at the age of 79.
Yusuf bin Alawi played a key role in maintaining Oman’s neutrality and as a regional mediator.
On Monday, he spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on the phone to stress Oman’s support of “a comprehensive, just and lasting peace,” Oman’s foreign ministry said on Twitter.
It was the first public contact between Oman and Israel since US President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the Jewish state and the UAE, Oman’s neighbor, have agreed to normalize ties.
In October 2018, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held surprise talks with Qaboos in Muscat, which does not officially recognize the Jewish state but maintains good ties with both Washington and Tehran.
Oman’s sultan names new foreign minister
https://arab.news/pzvz9
Oman’s sultan names new foreign minister
- Badr Albusaidi, 60, was named foreign minister of Oman
- He replaces the long-serving Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah
Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe
RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.
Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.
