Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Oman has agreed to allow the Israeli civil aviation company El Al to overfly its airspace en route to Asia.
Netanyahu’s announcement came during a conference gathering Israeli ambassadors abroad, in which he spoke about “the prospects of the broad development of Israeli diplomacy” and focused in particular on relations with the Arab world.
In his lecture, Netanyahu responded to criticism by political opposition groups and Israeli research institutes, which accuse him of wasting a golden opportunity to establish peace relations with Arab countries. He stressed that Israel’s relations in the Arab world were witnessing an unprecedented revolution.
The premier said that during his visit to Oman last month, Sultan Qaboos agreed to overflights by El Al.
“At this time, we can overfly Egypt. We can overfly Chad; that has already been set. And to all appearances, we can also overfly this corner of Sudan; we hope we can fly over Saudi Arabia,” he noted.
Netanyahu emphasized that the changes in the Israeli diplomatic map were being achieved “thanks to the intelligence advantages of Israel.”
“We have prevented aircraft from falling, and we have thwarted dozens of massive operations against a number of countries in the world, thanks to our intelligence capabilities. No one has intelligence capabilities similar to those we have. Thanks to this information, we have also established relationships in the Arab world. We protect Europe in two aspects: first, when we thwart dozens of terrorist operations, and second, by preventing the collapse of the western Middle East due to Iran’s danger,” he affirmed.
Netanyahu went on to say: “We see a unity of interests with the Arab world, and this paves the way for new opportunities. The Arab leaders, whom I met, have been telling tell me that ‘it is time for one percent of us to abandon the commitment. We want to enjoy the fruits of progress and not miss normalizing relations with Israel because of the whims of Palestinians’.”
The Sudanese government did not comment on Netanyahu’s claims.
Earlier this month, Sudanese activists circulated maps of air traffic, confirming that El Al planes had crossed Sudanese airspace into South America.
Sudanese Minister of State at the foreign ministry Osama Faisal had said on April 4 that Khartoum’s position was” firm and would not budge” regionally, adding that his country bars its citizens from visiting Israel.
