Muscat – In a surprise visit, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now officially visited Gulf state of Oman on Friday on an invitation from the Sultanate which happened first time in the 20-years.
Oman now proudly stands next to Qatar and Turkey to recognize Israel and officially invite Israeli premiers.
According to the Israeli PM’s office, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said pleaded Netanyahu to visit the country after conducting lengthy conversations.
Despite Israel and Oman do not hold proper diplomatic relations, a similar surprise visit was made by former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also paid a three-day visit to Oman earlier this week.
Oman sees itself a broker to hold peace-treaty between Palestine and Israel, but it lacks the power and influence like that of Saudi Arabia to pull Israel on the negotiation table with Palestine.
Along with Netanyahu joined his wife, head of Israeli Intelligence – Mossad, Foreign Ministry director, and other defense officials.
Oman and Israel issued a joint statement that – two sides “discussed ways to advance the Middle East peace process and discussed a number of issues of mutual interest to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Oman has always stood as passive power in the region. Though it belongs to the Gulf Cooperation Council, but it has declined to support Saudi-blockade of Qatar and Saudi-led coalition in Yemen against Iran.
Saudi-Arabia proposed Two-state solution to Israel back in 2002 to permanently resolve the Palestine and Israel disputes. However, Israel and Muslim Brotherhood backed Hamas refused to negotiate.
