Pro independents lead a in power much to the annoyance of chaya now the middle easts longest drilling monarch armand Sultan Qaboos been side outside has died aged 793 days of mourning have been declared on the process has begun to choose who will take over could be you said no children and never public you name just successor hes credited with modernizing the gulf country and mediation between rivals in a volatile region rob matheson looks back at as life bin Saeed Al Saeed was an only son born in 1942 a life of royal privilege and to a father he would overthrow 30 years later what he did basically is modernizing the country opening the country to outsiders and thirdly looking at the domestic politics and try to move on to state formation where building is institutions and related elements sort unco boss was educated in oman and then at a private school in the u. K. Before graduating from Sandhurst Military Academy and serving in the british army for several months on his return to a man in 1966 his determination to modernize his country is said to have been ignored by his father. 4 years later backed by the british Sultan Qaboos sees the throne he was immediately plunged into his 1st crisis an uprising by communists and go far in the south of a man who wanted independence it took a further 6 years before the fighting ended with the man being supported by forces from britain jordan and iran. A mans links with iran as well as its Foreign Policy of maintaining good relations with other neighboring countries have made it one of the main negotiators in the gulf a man basically rely on it is on understanding of geopolitics. Being realistic and also maintain his own legacy of being you know the oldest state. Experience in the gulf as a whole that flexible Foreign Policy has been controversial in october 2800. 00 sort on caboose met israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu in the omani capital muscat the meeting dismayed critics who said arab states should not be hosting israeli leaders until peace was established between israel and the palestinians a mans. Modern minister said his country was simply facilitating efforts towards negotiations. Had rarely been seen in public since he went through lengthy medical treatment in germany in 2015 he was are married and had neither children nor siblings and he did not publicly name a successor the Foreign Policy already was i would say dynamic broad matic and also open to. The idea of engaging with the International Community and that the true dimension make make me believe that we should not expect a major change now the world waits to see who will replace a man who modernized his small gulf nation and maintained a delicate balance of loyalties in an often unstable region as well as reaction is felt throughout the region we have been salah thats the capital of a mans neighbor yemen but 1st lets talk to us and by christian terran for us as it does seem that iran has always felt they had a friend in iran undercovers a state ship how was he being remembered that. Well he did have a very close relationship for a number of years even historically even before. Before iran became Islamic Republic of iran in the 1970 s. When im on faced a marxist rebellion in the south iran then ruled by the shard dispatched 4000 soldiers 700 irena soldiers died then a man has never really forgotten that amount hasnt remain mainly neutral in the region during the iran iraq war between 180988 there were secret talks held between iran and iraq in moscow now though nothing became of those that helped reduce the mistrust between the 2 countries and a man supported a United Nations resolution asking for a cease fire and if i could just list some of the mediation that omar has done. With iran and for iran so the me in 1900 mediated between iran and egypt in 2007 between u. K. And iran in 2002009 the United States dispatched a high level delegation to muscat so to discuss Nuclear Cooperation with iran in 2013 there were secret talks between the United States and iran in oman over Irans Nuclear program which led to the 2015 Nuclear Agreement now we know from former u. S. Diplomats that online approached the United States to start those talks to say that there was a possibility of talks between the 2 countries and on one very much said to the United States that try and look at the region from an iranian perspective weve had issues of u. S. Hikers been detained in iran and a minor mediated the release of those and also for iranian nationals held in the United States and im on mediated the release of those iranians so theyve had a very close relationship just back in april last year there was a joint military Naval Military exercise. The strait of hormuz and of course the 2 countries share the narrowest point between the 2 countries in the strait of hormuz that strategic waterway is only 33 kilometers so iran holds of more of the sort of very close to their heart and more and has represented iran in cases with the embassies have been closed in such as the United Kingdom and canada said by their speaking to us from tehran thank you i said well now lets go to mohammed our lots have been yemens capital and mahmoud weve been hearing there about the mediation efforts that kabila is and participated in in the region he also was very much the quite diplomat when it came to trying to end the war and yemen talk us through how he is now regarded in santa. Yes. The late sultan. Been side has played a major role in bringing to the negotiating table the warring sides. Including the whole fees and also the International Governments he has also facilitated in the some of the problems that faced yemeni especially with the saudi improves the blockade and ban on some International Airport facility to be a fly the medical flights and also the diplomatic flights so they are the whole of these and all other politicians who want to travel outside of the account tree used to travel from sunup to oman saw the their all the has been played during the last 5 year years by our mind there is is admired by many people here in yemen especially that the almighty policy of friends or and also an enemy to man has also held on man to thrive become a recovery and also to have a Good Relationship with its neighbors the. Current developments in the region also the continuation of the war between the saudi quality of the whole fees or would have also an impact in the development of after the aftermath of the death of the whole time of kabul especially many people hold that the. Kabul says. Would continue in the marshall for seoul time cobbles and also continue the mediation that has started by the sultan himself will so. Many also experiment a suspect there are expect that the successor will face difficult difficulties specially with the saudi arabias talents to pave its way for the oil pipeline thaw the yemeni territories to their arab sea. More than one who. The. Club has faced many difficulties with saudi arabia even though that hes continued his policy of a neutral but such problem close the close there are many many challenges that will with cool could have started a war with the with saudi arabia with such a terms even though the tribes that have been backed by the saudi arabia field nodded to give saudi arabia domination a number which is in the border and would be. There for us in sinai yemens capital thank you manners or a mans Defense Council thats made up of the heads of the armed forces and other Security Officials has convened members of the whale family to choose a successor they have 3 days to settle on who should take over and if they fail to do this there then turned to Sultan Qaboos his choice of successor he wrote this in 2 identical sealed letters there are 2 of them in case one of them gets lost now that individual will then be revealed by muskrats royal court before taking the throne. Well joining us here in doha is much to barry who is director of the Gulf Studies Center at Castle University lets start with his legacy when he took over there were less than 10 kilometers of paved roads in oman and now were seeing hospital universities how is he being remembered today. I think there are many people who will be remembered the leader who basically put together a modern and basically when it comes to the state for Mission State building. When it comes to the Institution Formation when it comes to the infrastructure when it comes including you know Health Service adjudication including you know focusing on a human being and trying to build the Human Capacity in the last 50 years and i think all americans were remember this will remember what kind of man so drunk i was because of that but despite his popularity much of that there were protests in amman jaring arab spring spring not not city large ones but they were protests and there has been a crackdown. You know the arab spring with actually determine in mid of 2011 and there were there were some demonstrations in salalah i think also on muscat and almost the mistaken well focus on some requested for more reform actually and for more Salary Increase in all of this and i think the government also tackled them using all of their tools just to calm down the situation and that was cause at that time criticism from human rights organizations and has there been subsequent criticism because some even though there is protest when necessary directed at him and there have been well i guess several wars i think i think the roland family and including zlatan they were clear on that because they actually dismissed a lot of senior officials cabinets and and actually. Blaming them for not doing their job properly and any criticism from human rights or aggressive focus on some legislation when it comes to the the right for them the straight the right the freedom of speech the freedom for assembly and all of this and. It seems also the authorities. Have responded to that and they have their own justification for some of the for the some of those are just asians but its again the whole the whole development of a man in the last 10 years approved to to show that there is a serious leadership which basically managed to avoid you know push the country out of any bad that im a fixation on well going beyond the borders where we were listening to our correspondents there tell us about how his mediation efforts almost made him on a kind of switzerland of the middle east a kind of neutral party a space for mediation and weve obviously seen heightened tensions in that region you know his family and how is his death likely to affect things you know interestingly in 2008 he has an interview certain couples with one of the arabic newspaper and he was asked about you know what a man is doing and he said very simple we have no problem with anyone and we dont are the fuel to the fire and that was how he defined basically the man youre all basically i think the mediation effort it was. 2 things helped a man to be mediator when the legacy of a man or a man is the longest state in the gulf it has more than 140 years that thats a good experience of statehood the 2nd one is actually you know the style of leadership of bunker was himself and the way how he put it out to put to better the state i think that helped him his experience being you know graduate from sandhurst that helped him a lot and actually also you know being an open country because a man when you speak about a man was open to all nationalities for what more than 100 years and that basically made the country the political culture of the country more open accepting the others and i think this is the future of politics and. Foreign policy and i think that the. Decision makers to behave like this and not to be what it. Being mediator and the role in a lot of conflicts are some very very big shoes to fill damages wary from cashing in a massive thank you for joining us again here in aljazeera. Well to other news now and the u. S. Has imposed additional sanctions on iran and retaliation for the Iranian Missile attack on u. S. Forces in iraq they target irans manufacturing and Mining Industries as well as 8 senior officials White House Correspondent candy reports. Already americans are under attack whether were tensions between the United States and iran still escalating on friday the u. S. Secretary of state and treasury secretary and oust more sections against iran in retaliation for its attack on iraq the military bases used by u. S. Troops the president has been very clear we will continue to apply economic sanctions until iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it would never have Nuclear Weapons the sanctions target of iran steel iron trade construction mining and textile industries are also saying sins against 8 Senior Iranian officials the trumpet ministration says are responsible for spreading violence throughout the broader middle east. But how boring over the Trump Administration are questions about last weeks killing of iranian general counsel of army assassination the white house says was necessary to save american lives without offering proof the threat was imminent this was going to happen. And american lives were at risk and we would have been called fully negligent as the chairman the joint chiefs of staff said we would have been culpably negligent and we now recommended the president that he take this action a custom so the money. The sanctions come as the u. S. Is odds with iraq over the future of its soldiers in that country or solo mahdi was killed the killing has fueled calls for the americans to leave roughly 5000. 00 troops are made as part of the Global Coalition to defeat eisel on friday the Iraqi Government said it wants a u. S. Delegation to visit iraq to plan for a withdrawal but the u. S. Says its not pulling out as times change and we get to a place where we can deliver upon what i believe the president believes is a right structure with fewer resources dedicated to that mission we will do so. Pump ale says any delegation sent to iraq will be for the purpose of discussing Strategic Partnerships like increasing the role of nato with the region and idea u. S. President donald trump announced this week a nato delegation visited the state department to discuss that prospect of working to develop a plan which will get burden sharing right in the region as well despite once calling nato obsolete President Trump says nato now must be expanded to include middle east nations to reduce tensions and to assist in the fight against eisel its an issue he insists is an International Problem cant really help it al jazeera the white house now canadian government officials are poised to travel to iran to deal with the aftermath of ukrainian aircraft in tehran which killed 57. 00 of its citizens they say theres evidence suggesting that the plane was brought down by an Iranian Missile a claim the terror on denies but canadas foreign minister says theyre still waiting for visas for their crash investigation team. For repeat our call for a full and general and vista geisha we have a team of officials from Global Affairs canada and the Transportation Safety board in place in ankara in turkey to date the iranians have issued 2 visas and we expect the other visas will be granted soon so we can begin providing Consular Services help with the advent of fixation of the victims and obviously participate in the investigation while iran has given ukraine access to the black box flight recorders the telepaths one day on reports and vesa gators are hoping these black boxes will provide answers on what caused the ukrainian plane to crash into iran shortly after takeoff killing all 176 passengers on board the u. S. Has shared its until with ukraine and the countrys foreign minister says iran is cooperating he said especially compared to the other team has gained access to the black boxes 1st we plan to begin reconstruction of the conversations before the crash we also have access to the records of dispatches of the Flight Control center at tehran airport and our pilots. The u. S. Canada and other western governments say the plane was brought down by in a rainy and misfile probably by mistake iran has denied responsibility but International Pressure is mounting and now nato is looking into the investigation the plane may have been down the body iranian air defenses systems thats exactly why we need a photo we know its the geisha and thats exactly why we need to establish all the facts. Iran has though the plane had mechanical problems it has invited International Experts from france ukraine canada and the u. S. To examine the wreckage and what it could reveal about the crash possibly a little pulse of sailed right at the end of the recording that would be ind