According to Sputnik, the head of the Middle East and peace process at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Aliaf Benjamin, told reporters on Wednesday that the Israeli Foreign Ministry was seeking to expand its relations with more Arab countries under the Abraham (2020) Compromise Agreement. .
According to the Israeli official, the Zionist regime is “basically talking to all the countries in the region, in the Middle East and North Africa.” Each of them [Arab countries] must decide when the time is right for them and how they should proceed. “We are talking to all of them, as well as Oman. We are advancing cooperation.”
From September to December last year, the Zionist regime established diplomatic relations with four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – thanks to the mediation of former US President Donald Trump.
Recently, the King of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq al-Saeed, praised the Abraham compromise agreement and said he hoped it would be “a fruitful process towards achieving peace based on ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and establishing an independent state.” “Palestine should be the capital of East Jerusalem (Jerusalem).”
It should be noted that informal talks between Israel and the Kingdom of Oman have not been unprecedented. Three Israeli prime ministers have traveled to Oman in secret over the years – Yitzhak Robin in 1994, Shimon Peres in 1996 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 – which even led to the opening of commercial offices in Oman and occupied Palestine. But relations soured rapidly in 2000, after the start of the Second Intifada.
Also last June, Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Bousaidi said in a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid that Oman’s policy was to sign no peace agreement with Israel until an independent Palestinian state was formed in the capital, Jerusalem. Does not.
“As I mentioned, we will not be the third Gulf state to normalize relations, but we support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” the Omani foreign minister told Al-Sharq al-Awsat a few days after the telephone conversation. “We do, and we respect the sovereign decisions of governments, just as we expect other countries to respect our sovereign decisions.”
