Sultan Qaboos is dead

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

I'm going to interrupt the lovefest on a Middle Eastern absolute monarch and say RIP, HP.

Thank you. He was an autocratic despot that suppressed the Omani people twice, once in the 70s and again during the Arab Spring. Are all you people gushing over Qaboos going to say the same about Gaddafi?

I'm not usually one who buys into the "strongman being necessary for the development of his country" trope, and I think it's untrue in most cases, examples being Park Chung-hee and Lee Kuan Yew. However, in my opinion Qaboos is an exception. He could've chosen to be like his father and done nothing to better the country, but instead he proved himself to be far better than he had any right to be. The internal improvements he made to Oman are obvious and well-known, but he also distinguished himself internationally by maintaining a position of neutrality and serving as a mediator in many instances. He refused to get Oman involved in proxy wars, and played a crucial role as an intermediary during the Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations. Also, unlike the other Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE, Oman isn't a filthy rich petrostate, built off the backs of abused migrant workers, that uses its cash to fund terrorism. The Middle East would be a much better place if there were more rulers like Qaboos in charge.

having one of the highest defense spending % in the world,

TBF, even as a pacifist myself, I can see why Oman would want a ridiculously high defense spending, considering that it's sandwiched between Saudi Arabia, Iran and the always unstable Yemen