Oman denied on Tuesday it was establishing ties with Israel. A reliable source at Oman’s Foreign Ministry rejected the statements of Director of the Mossad Yossi Cohen on renewing ties with the sultanate.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry said in a tweet that such claims were “baseless.”
“The Sultanate is keen to make efforts to prepare diplomatic conditions favorable to restoring contacts between all international and regional parties in order to work to achieve peace between the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel’s government, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” it added.
Yossi Cohen said at the Herzliya Conference, hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center this week, that: “Just recently, renewal of formal relations with Oman was declared and the establishment of a representative office of the Foreign Ministry in that country.”
“That is only the visible tip of a much broader secret effort,” he added.
“We do not yet have with them official peace treaties, but there is already a commonality of interests, broad cooperation and open channels of communication.”
Israel and Oman opened trade representative offices in the 1990s, but in 2000 the Gulf sultanate closed them. On the 26th of June, Oman said it would open an embassy in the Palestinian territories, however, the step was greeted warily by Palestinians.
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi welcomed countries' recognition of the state of Palestine and opening embassies but warned Oman against using the new embassy as a step toward establishing formal relations with Israel.
“If this has a political price attached then certainly there will be ramifications,” she said.
The authority’s announcement coincided with the convention of the second and last day of "Peace to Prosperity" workshop in Manama that presented the economic aspect of the US peace-plan in the Middle East – known as the Deal of the Century -- Palestinians boycotted this conference.
Oman played a key role in narrowing the divergencies in views between Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the Palestinian cause.
