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The Guardian – March 19, 2026

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 has said.

Writing in The Economist
, Badr Albusaidi abandoned the usual reserve of diplomatic language to call the war a “catastrophe” and said Donald Trump’s administration had “lost control of its own foreign policy”.

He mediated a second round of indirect negotiations that resumed in Oman on 6 February, with the final round held in Geneva on 26 February.

“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.

The details of what was on the table in Geneva is of major significance, experts say, because Trump justified the war by saying Iran posed an “imminent” threat with its nuclear programme.

Albusaidi blamed “Israel’s leadership” for persuading Trump that “an unconditional surrender would swiftly follow the initial assault and the assassination of the supreme leader” Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening salvo of the war.

“The American administration’s greatest miscalculation, of course, was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in the first place.”

“America’s friends have a responsibility to tell the truth,” he continued, adding that one of the messages “involves indicating the extent to which America has lost control of its own foreign policy”.

The Guardian revealed this week that Britain’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell attended the final round of US-Iran talks in Geneva and viewed Iran’s proposals as “significant enough to prevent a rush to war”

 

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