Iran's Dual Diplomacy During the Dhofar Movement (1965-1975)

The Dhofar movement, which lasted for ten years, was initially influenced by Arabian nationalism led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, but shifted towards the Eastern bloc after the Arabs’ defeat by Israel (1967 AD). Shortly before England’s withdrawal from Persian Gulf when Sultan Qaboos entered Oman’s political scene (1970 AD), Iran suppressed the movement with British and American support. The influences of Arabian nationalism and the communism current were the two major challenges during this decade shaping Iran’s political response to the movement. Iran implicitly declared neutrality to the movement despite confirming legitimacy of its religious leader. However, once Sultan Qaboos rose to power, Iran directly participated in the suppression of the movement. The main concern of this descriptive-analytical paper is to know why this happened. Findings show that the above-mentioned challenges significantly impacted on Iran’s adoption of two distinct political approaches: While affirming the legitimacy of Sultan’s adversaries, Iran initially avoided bolstering the movement’s position against the West and maintained positive neutrality and refrained from any actions. Later on, to consolidate the position of the new sultan and to confront the growing influence of the East, Iran suppressed the movement.