The Sultanate of Oman, so far the only Gulf state to brazenly host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2018, has close ties to Iran, so the prospects for arms agreements are limited, according to the ministry. It is most likely limited to “soft” technology, for example, in counterterrorism and security spaces, the researchers wrote.
At the same time, Omanis are likely to show great interest in Israeli civil technologies, such as water, agriculture and implemented technologies such as data and communications, cybersecurity, schooling, and more.
There have already been signs in years that Israel and Oman are getting closer.
Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018, the first through an Israeli leader in more than two decades, in what was perceived as a sign of the warm ties between the Jewish state and the Sunni Arab world. He was received at that time through Sultan Qaboos bin Said: who died before this year and was succeeded through his cousin Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, who appears to have continued the opening to Israel.
Oman’s then foreign minister, Yousef bin Alawi, spoke by phone last month with his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, the first verbal exchange of its kind between the two senior diplomats.
Bin Alwai told Ashkenazi that Oman “clearly reaffirms his position by calling for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in the Middle East. He also called for “the resumption of the peace procedure in order to satisfy the valid rights of other Palestinians than to aspire to an independent state. “