A Distant Friend in Need

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman is the most forthright, and therefore often the loneliest, of America's friends on the Arabian peninsula. He is also the most optimistic, as TIME Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott found during an interview with the 41-year-old monarch.

Qaboos (pronounced Caboose) has been the only leader in the region to support openly the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's separate peace with Israel and to endorse the Camp David agreements. Like Ronald Reagan, Qaboos feels that the most realistic possibility for a Middle East settlement is some form of Jordanian-Palestinian confederation once Israel has returned most of the West Bank to Jordan.

Other Arab leaders charge, and many Western experts are worried, that the Israeli expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Beirut has been a net setback to American interests and influence in the area, since the U.S. is widely, if simplistically, seen in the Arab world as an accomplice in the Israeli invasion. Qaboos does not agree with this view. He thinks the U.S. could get credit for playing a mediating role: "People have now discovered that the West, and the U.S. in particular, could actually do something to bring the situation to an end. They've discovered that the Soviets, with all their might, would not do much except sell arms to them. So the U.S. and the West have come to be seen more clearly as the only force willing and able to influence the outcome of the crisis for the better.

"However," Qaboos cautions, "there has been an increase in expectations about what more the U.S. can do. People now want to see the problem solved once and for all, in every aspect."

Qaboos feels that his own standing in the Arab world may be somewhat strengthened in the aftermath of the Lebanon crisis, if the U.S. can eventually persuade Israel to compromise. He says: "Some of those who used to talk about so-called Arab solidarity were completely against anyone who supported Egypt and who remained friends with the U.S. Now that kind of talk has been dissolved, except perhaps in the imagination of the Libyans. People who hoped that the more radical Arab states would fight Israel and stand behind the Palestinians, discrediting the moderate Arabs, have seen their hopes come to nothing. Now the moderates are in a stronger position than the hardliners. I think many rather envy us for pulling through and for sticking to our position."

Qaboos made clear that he intends to stick to another position that has aroused criticism and controversy: a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on military measures. But he warns Washington to proceed cautiously. "Permanent [American] bases in an area as sensitive as this would be counterproductive," he says, "and exercises should not have the appearance of an invasion.

" Since there is nothing discreet or temporary about the Soviet military presence in the region, why must the U.S. keep such a low profile? Because, Qaboos says, "there is a basic difference between us and those countries where the Soviets have permanent bases. In some places, the Soviets are there by means of occupation. In others, the regimes give their people no say. By contrast, we have our own system that, like your system of democracy, does not let us do things that people would not want us to do. I am not saying there should be complete secrecy. That would be wrong too." Qaboos feels that a government should be open with its people to avoid causing resentment.

Many officials in the gulf, and back in Washington too, are concerned about the possibility of an indigenous upheaval by Khomeini-style Islamic fanatics. On that point, Qaboos seems more confident than many of his fellow Arabs and his allies in the Reagan Administration. "Fundamentalism in and of itself is not a political threat," he says. "It becomes a threat if it is used as a cover by others-- Communists or whomever--to get into people's minds." The Sultan of Oman is determined to defend his country against that possibility.

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