Sultan's Balancing Act Too Much Too Handle?

As tensions between the West and Iran intensify over the latter's nuclear programme and an escalation into open conflict becomes a distinct possibility, Oman faces a thorny foreign policy dilemma: on the one hand, the Sultanate is heavily reliant on the US and the UK for its defence and security needs; on the other, economic imperatives are pushing it ever closer towards Tehran. Reconciling these competing objectives will be the overriding foreign policy priority for 2010. If forced to choose, we believe that ties to the West will prove more robust than those extending across the Gulf.

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