Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi told Al-Monitor in an interview that his country is “open” to normalizing ties with Israel but not at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs.
Albusaidi indicated that the creation of a Palestinian state would be a prerequisite for Oman to establish full ties with Israel.
"We are open to a relationship with Israel, but not at the expense of ignoring [and] closing the door on the Palestinians,” the Foreign Minister told Al-Monitor. “Any fully-fledged relationship with Israel also needs to be also matched in parallel with a fully-fledged relationship and recognition of the State of Palestine.”
Albusaidi also said that Oman is ready to assist with the Palestinian Arab-Israeli peace process “when the mood and the willingness are there in the Israeli camp, which unfortunately, at the moment we don't see.”
Oman has no official relations with Israel, but its Civil Aviation Authority announced earlier this year that its airspace will be open for all flights leaving Israel. Oman thus joined Saudi Arabia, which opened its airspace to flights from Israel last year.
Though Oman does not officially recognize the State of Israel, there have been on-and-off relations between the two nations for years.
In October 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Oman, and it seemed there was a warming of ties between the countries.
Later, Minister Israel Katz also visited Oman, where he presented a plan for the construction of a railway between Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf.
Oman has in the past offered to play a role in mediating talks between Israel and the PA, as Albusaidi indicated in the interview with Al-Monitor.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)