In July of last year the British overthrew Said bin Taimur and put in his son Qabus. What have the British done since then, and what have Qabus’ policies been?

talal saad: What happened in July 1970 was not unexpected; it was the result of a long-term plan, drawn up by British imperialism to contain, and then liquidate, the prevailing revolutionary trend. In this sense, the overthrow of Said bin Taimur was part of a double plan. First there was the plan for a so-called ‘Omani constitutional monarchy’; this had long been advocated by Tariq bin Taimur, Said’s brother. The second plan was obviously that of the Union of Arab Emirates. Both were political fronts for British neo-colonialism in the area, in a desperate attempt to advance seemingly patriotic régimes. There were two major reasons why the British were driven to replace Said by his son. The first was the success achieved by the revolution in Dhofar; this had begun to constitute a serious threat to the interests of imperialism in the whole area. In contrast, the reactionary régime of Said bin Taimur had become incapable of coping with the rising tide of revolution in Dhofar. A second equally important cause was the beginning of armed struggle in Oman proper under the leadership of the National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf. After Said’s replacement, the British tried to undermine the revolution by a series of so-called reforms. In Salala itself, and in the plain around Salala, one or two clinics were opened, and some land was reclaimed. But in the mountains controlled by the Front British imperialism was unable to carry out even these minimal reforms, because of the Front’s control over the mountains. The British also tried to divide the revolution and attract some of the tribesmen, but that too was a miserable failure. Militarily, British imperialism stepped up its attacks, especially its genocidal assault on the civil population in Dhofar. Recently, in the western sector, there was an attack on a civilian settlement at Mbrot; some people were wounded and many cattle were killed. The western part of the liberated area has been subjected to constant strafing and bombing of an indiscriminate kind, in an attempt to terrify the civilian population and weaken their support for the revolution.

The British have announced their plans to try to cut the supply lines between South Yemen and Dhofar in the way that the Americans are trying to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail in Indo-China. What have they done in this respect?

talal saad: There is an overall concentrated plan to liquidate the revolution throughout the Gulf, and all the forces of reaction in the area have been working in this direction. This plan is been carried out as follows. First, Saudi Arabia is arming and financing mercenaries and these forces, together with Saudi Arabia’s own army, are making constant raids into the fifth and sixth provinces of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. The aim of this is to liquidate the revolutionary régime in South Yemen and to deprive the revolution in the Gulf of its secure base. In addition, there has been constant bombing of the region around Hauf, the South Yemeni village on the borders of Dhofar, and of the track that links South Yemen to the front lines of the Dhofari revolution, and which crosses the western sector of the liberated areas.

One of the causes of the overthrow of Said, as Talal Saad has said, was the outbreak of armed struggle in Oman itself. Now in Oman in the 1950’s there was a tribal rebellion, led by the Imam Ghalib. Could you say what your relationship to that was, since it was regarded in the west as an anti-imperialist struggle and was supported by revolutionaries? What were the events which precipitated the June crisis in Oman, and what has happened since then? What have Qabus and Tariq been trying to do?

said seif: The most important thing to say about Imam Ghalib’s movement is that it represented a clash within the imperialist camp. It was a conflict between the Imam and Said bin Taimur, i.e. a conflict between an absolute régime and a caricature of that obsolete régime, represented by the Imam himself. When we say that it is a conflict within the imperialist camp, we mean that behind Said bin Taimur and Imam Ghalib were Britain on the one hand and America and Saudi Arabia on the other. However, although the Imam’s movement represented a clash within the imperialist camp, it did have sizeable mass support; the masses who supported the Imam supported him mainly as a patriotic reaction to the British occupation of the interior of Oman in 1954.

As for the events of June 1970, it was clear by then that Britain was depending on an obsolete régime that was increasingly in contradiction with social and economic developments in the Gulf as a whole. Two opposition forces stood against this régime. One force argued that the best way to counter the revolution was by making certain concessions and certain reforms. This was the reactionary opposition to Said bin Taimur. The second opposition was the progressive opposition; it opposed the whole structure of Omani society and the organic ties that united this society and the Said dynasty to British imperialism. These were two local Arab opposition forces. On the other hand, there had traditionally been two trends among the British imperialists in the area. One trend was a traditionalist, colonialist trend, consisting mainly of people who had come from India and were personal advisers to the Sultan; they defended the policy of maintaining Said in office and at times justified all he stood for. Against these traditionalists there stood a group of modernists who wanted to rely not on an autocratic régime like Said’s but on the new middle class, which was to be the major basis for the preservation of neo-colonialism in the area. What tipped the scales in favour of the second, modernist, trend was the launching of armed struggle in the interior of Oman in June 1970. It was at this time that Shell felt that its interests were at risk, and pressed for Britain to back the ‘moderate’ wing of the Al Bu Said dynasty, represented by Qabus and Tariq.