Oman Navigates Between Iran and Arab Nations
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: May 15, 2009
Oman — As Iran finds itself locked in an escalating cold war-style conflict with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, the quietly influential Sultanate of Oman has accelerated its cooperation with Tehran, nurturing an alliance that helps empower Iran while highlighting the deep divisions among Arab capitals.
Oman, a strategically vital, insistently pragmatic country, has refused overtures of its larger neighbors to pull away from Iran. Instead, it defied Egypt and Saudi Arabia by declining to join them in boycotting a summit meeting in Qatar in January that was held to support Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. The Iranian news agency Fars said that Oman and Iran were close to completing a security pact.
The close ties between Iran and Oman, and the reasons behind them, help explain the West’s failure to cripple Iran with trade sanctions, as well as the inability of Iran’s Arab opponents to build a unified opposition to its growing regional influence.
“For us, this is the expression of being realistic,” said Salim al-Mahruqi, a former Omani diplomat who had served in Washington. He now works for the Culture Ministry here in Muscat, the capital city.
“Iran is a big neighbor, and it is there to stay,” he said.
Oman, like Syria and Qatar, sees in Iran an important political and economic ally that is too powerful and too potentially dangerous to ignore. [Iran-Qatar relations changed with Arab spring, article is from 2009]. Even the United Arab Emirates, which is battling with Iranian leaders over the title to three Persian Gulf islands, has done little to stop billions of dollars in annual trade with Iran.
Rarely in the news, Oman has long been a pivotal behind-the-scenes player in the region. It is an absolute monarchy, led since 1970 by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has fostered a diplomatic approach that gives his nation the unique status of having close ties to both Iran and the United States.
Oman has at times served as a go-between for the two nations, and it has left open the possibility that the United States could use Omani military bases for staging operations in the region, especially in Afghanistan.
Unlike Syria and Qatar, which want larger regional roles, Oman is strictly focused on bolstering its domestic stability. Omanis continue the relationship with Iran because of historic ties, because they know it could easily overrun their nation, if it so chose, and because it has for generations been an important commercial partner.
One visible sign of that cooperation lies far from Muscat, at the tip of an unforgiving peninsula of jagged, rocky mountains in the governate of Musandam. Here, Oman has for years helped Iranian smugglers circumvent international trade sanctions.
Fleets of small, open-topped speedboats cross the Strait of Hormuz daily, making the trip in under an hour. Docked in Oman, they load up with a wide variety of goods, including food, clothing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, air-conditioners, even motorcycles.
“No one has ever tried to stop this smuggling,” said Omran Abdel Kader Abdullah, 18, a local resident who said he joined the family business supplying goods to smugglers when he finished high school. “It’s our living. Every family is involved.”
In fact, the local government coordinates the delivery of goods to the smugglers’ speedboats, distributing pickup and delivery orders each morning to anyone with a small truck. The trade is considered illegal in Iran, because the smugglers avoid paying Iranian duty and taxes. But Oman collects taxes on all the goods.
Pragmatic considerations like those have done little to calm the anxiety of Arab governments that see in Iran a threat to their own regional standing and national interests. As a result, Oman is experiencing strained relations with its Arab neighbors.
While the West is concerned that Iran will develop nuclear weapons in the future, officials in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain complain about what Iran is doing today. Morocco took the most extreme step, severing diplomatic relations with Iran in March.
Egyptian officials recently accused Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon, of sending an agent to Egypt to set up a terrorist cell. Hezbollah acknowledged sending the agent but said it had been trying only to help smuggle weapons into Gaza to aid Hamas in its war with Israel. It denied planning terrorist attacks on Egypt. Egyptians have also charged that Iran has undermined reconciliation between Palestinian factions; tried to instigate an uprising against the Egyptian government; become involved in domestic politics and conflicts in Sudan, Chad and other countries; and tried to spread Shiite Islamic beliefs in Sunni-majority countries. Iran has denied meddling in Arab affairs.
But while Oman is eager to maintain good relations with Cairo, it also sees Egypt as a withered Arab center struggling to reclaim its former glory.
“Unfortunately, what is going on is Egypt is creating an enemy from nothing and undermining the Egyptian role,” said Saif al-Maskery, a former official in Oman’s Foreign Ministry.
Omanis said they did not fear Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But they are concerned about Iran’s exporting its Islamic revolutionary ideology. And most of all, Iran has a far stronger conventional military force. Oman’s foreign policy reflects religious differences with Saudi Arabia. Many people in Muscat said that they saw the ultraconservative Saudi Arabian approach to Islam as more of a danger to Omani interests, and stability, than Iranian activities in the region.
Oman is a Muslim state, but 75 percent of the population is affiliated with a conservative sect called Ibadism. Over the years Saudi religious figures have tried to spread their more fundamentalist views in Oman. “We don’t allow Saudis to work in our community,” said Said al-Hashmi, manager of research for the State Council, a government advisory body.
There is also the matter of economics. Oman faces a budget deficit this year, in part because of a drop in oil revenues. It has far less oil than many of its Persian Gulf neighbors and wants to diversify its economy.
Exports to Iran provide important revenue. Allowing the smugglers to operate is another example of how Oman’s self-interest is often aligned with Iran’s.
The weathered speedboats line up along three small piers in Musandam every morning, right next to large police boats that patrol the strait. The trip is short, but many captains said it can be perilous because they have to dodge massive oil tankers and avoid Iranian coast guard patrols. “It’s all business,” said Rashed Said, 27, as he delivered 140 boxes loaded with clothing to the pier. “It’s all money.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/world/middleeast/16oman.html?_r=0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Omani Road to Iran
November 4, 2011
The Sultanate of Oman had a rocky start to the year. In February, inspired by the still nascent Arab Spring, hundreds of disenchanted Omanis took to the streets to protest unfair wages and a lack of job opportunities. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said moved quickly, promising 50,000 government jobs and $2.6 billion to promote new work opportunities in the private sector.
The results, though, have been mixed – autumn elections for a Shura advisory council have theoretically reduced the Sultan’s absolute power, but the real effects of this move remain questionable.
However, despite its domestic warts, Oman remains an important interlocutor between the United States and Iran. Unlike its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Oman has maintained very good relations with both Iran and the United States. The Iranian relationship was solidified by Oman’s neutrality during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and its subsequent efforts aimed at concluding the conflict through the United Nations. Since then, Oman’s ties with Iran have blossomed, save a few hiccups on the way.
This relationship is by far the strongest link Iran has to the Gulf Cooperation Council states and provides a valuable opening for the United States. Last month, Sultan Qaboos hosted U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Muscat to discuss a host of Iranian issues, including the recent alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. However, the visit was also a courtesy extended to Oman in thanks of Sultan Qaboos efforts to free the remaining two U.S. hikers from imprisonment in Iran. The Omani leader reportedly paid $1.5 million in bail to free the hikers, including Sarah Shroud, who was released last year.
During Clinton’s visit to Oman, the State Department released a statement indicating that the United States “expects that (the) Omanis would use their relationship with Iran, as they have in the past, to help the Iranians understand the implications of what they’re doing.” Oman remains an undervalued card for the U.S. in dealing with a truculent regime in Iran.
Thus far, it remains questionable whether Oman will be able to effect Tehran’s calculations. Iranian intransigence is a product of its vulnerable security environment and deep seated suspicion of the West’s involvement in the region. While no single state or organization alone can soothe these concerns and realities, Oman remains best placed to keep the backdoor open to ensure that there are some small victories.
The Omani Road to Iran | Flashpoints
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiny Nation Played Pivotal Role In Americans' Release
September 21, 2011
The two American men who stepped out of an Iranian prison Wednesday after spending more than two years in custody may have a tiny Persian Gulf nation to thank for greasing the wheels of their release.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, had been accused of espionage along with fellow American Sarah Shourd and sentenced to eight years in prison. They were freed in exchange for $1 million and flown to Oman.
It's not the first time the sultanate of Oman has served as a broker between Tehran and Washington. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Iran, while Oman maintains good relationships with both countries.
Oman's involvement in the case began a year ago, when it paid for Shourd's release and sent a plane to pick her up. Diplomatic sources told NPR that Oman's sultan, Qaboos bin Said, paid $500,000 each to free Bauer and Fattal — the same amount paid to liberate Shourd. Oman also provided a private plane to transport the two men to its capital city of Muscat, much like it did with Shourd.
The State Department had no immediate comment on Oman's involvement in Wednesday's releases. But when Shourd was freed, department spokesman P.J. Crowley praised Muscat as "a key interlocutor" that helped "work this case with the Iranian government."
Swiss and Iraqi officials also worked on the Americans' behalf.
Oman's role in the negotiations isn't surprising, said Alex Vantanka, a scholar at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute.
Oman is "one of the only countries to Iran's south that has never had issues with Tehran," he said.
"The Americans discovered the Omanis can be a good go-between, especially when there's a human dimension," said Mustafa Alani of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "Tehran always opens its door to the Omanis."
Situated strategically at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Oman has enjoyed a long history as a maritime transshipment hub as well as a meeting place between East and West. Therefore, Vantanka said, it's always been important for Muscat to maintain good relationships with other nations.
"It's also difficult for Iran to see Oman as a threat. It's a small country, with a small population, and it's not that wealthy because it doesn't have the oil that Saudi Arabia or its other Gulf neighbors does," he said.
Oman has remained one of Iran's few allies as Tehran has found itself increasingly isolated over its nuclear program. The sultan was the first foreign ruler to visit Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.
In the late 1960s, the Shah of Iran dispatched troops to Oman to help quash a communist revolution supported by South Yemen.
"And don't underestimate the economic ties between the two countries," Vantanka said, referring — among other things — to a pipeline in the works that would send Iranian natural gas to Oman for shipment around the world.
Muscat's relationship with Washington has been just as cordial. A treaty of navigation and friendship between the two countries dates back to 1833. Oman was one of the few Persian Gulf states to openly support the 1979 Camp David meetings that led to the Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty. Oman has allowed the U.S. to use its military bases and has shown close cooperation on counterterrorism.
"The Omanis have always been an outlier in the Gulf," said Ray Takeyh, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Theodore Karasik of the Institute of Near East and Gulf Military Analysis says that "from the Omani point of view, they see the other GCC states as being 'over there' behind the mountains; we're in front of the mountains. That separates them from the rest of what the GCC states are thinking. That's why they feel that they can have a special relationship with Iran."
Qaboos, who came to power in a 1970 palace coup, is seen as a liberal modernizer, said Alireza Nader, an international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation.
"But make no mistake — it's one-man rule, it's not a democracy," he said.
On issues such as Iran's nuclear program, Nader said: "Qaboos tends to view them very pragmatically. He also doesn't seem to be as driven by issues of religion as do many of his neighbors." That's partly thanks to the country's largely dominant Ibadi sect of Islam, which skirts the Sunni-Shia divide that has plagued many other Muslim nations.
Takeyh said Oman's ability to bridge the deep rift that separates the U.S. and Iran has raised its currency with both nations,.
"And given the political realities, that's no small accomplishment," he said.
Tiny Nation Played Pivotal Role In Americans' Release : NPR
Long live brotherly Iranian-Omani relationship!!!
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: May 15, 2009
Oman — As Iran finds itself locked in an escalating cold war-style conflict with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, the quietly influential Sultanate of Oman has accelerated its cooperation with Tehran, nurturing an alliance that helps empower Iran while highlighting the deep divisions among Arab capitals.
Oman, a strategically vital, insistently pragmatic country, has refused overtures of its larger neighbors to pull away from Iran. Instead, it defied Egypt and Saudi Arabia by declining to join them in boycotting a summit meeting in Qatar in January that was held to support Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. The Iranian news agency Fars said that Oman and Iran were close to completing a security pact.
The close ties between Iran and Oman, and the reasons behind them, help explain the West’s failure to cripple Iran with trade sanctions, as well as the inability of Iran’s Arab opponents to build a unified opposition to its growing regional influence.
“For us, this is the expression of being realistic,” said Salim al-Mahruqi, a former Omani diplomat who had served in Washington. He now works for the Culture Ministry here in Muscat, the capital city.
“Iran is a big neighbor, and it is there to stay,” he said.
Oman, like Syria and Qatar, sees in Iran an important political and economic ally that is too powerful and too potentially dangerous to ignore. [Iran-Qatar relations changed with Arab spring, article is from 2009]. Even the United Arab Emirates, which is battling with Iranian leaders over the title to three Persian Gulf islands, has done little to stop billions of dollars in annual trade with Iran.
Rarely in the news, Oman has long been a pivotal behind-the-scenes player in the region. It is an absolute monarchy, led since 1970 by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has fostered a diplomatic approach that gives his nation the unique status of having close ties to both Iran and the United States.
Oman has at times served as a go-between for the two nations, and it has left open the possibility that the United States could use Omani military bases for staging operations in the region, especially in Afghanistan.
Unlike Syria and Qatar, which want larger regional roles, Oman is strictly focused on bolstering its domestic stability. Omanis continue the relationship with Iran because of historic ties, because they know it could easily overrun their nation, if it so chose, and because it has for generations been an important commercial partner.
One visible sign of that cooperation lies far from Muscat, at the tip of an unforgiving peninsula of jagged, rocky mountains in the governate of Musandam. Here, Oman has for years helped Iranian smugglers circumvent international trade sanctions.
Fleets of small, open-topped speedboats cross the Strait of Hormuz daily, making the trip in under an hour. Docked in Oman, they load up with a wide variety of goods, including food, clothing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, air-conditioners, even motorcycles.
“No one has ever tried to stop this smuggling,” said Omran Abdel Kader Abdullah, 18, a local resident who said he joined the family business supplying goods to smugglers when he finished high school. “It’s our living. Every family is involved.”
In fact, the local government coordinates the delivery of goods to the smugglers’ speedboats, distributing pickup and delivery orders each morning to anyone with a small truck. The trade is considered illegal in Iran, because the smugglers avoid paying Iranian duty and taxes. But Oman collects taxes on all the goods.
Pragmatic considerations like those have done little to calm the anxiety of Arab governments that see in Iran a threat to their own regional standing and national interests. As a result, Oman is experiencing strained relations with its Arab neighbors.
While the West is concerned that Iran will develop nuclear weapons in the future, officials in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain complain about what Iran is doing today. Morocco took the most extreme step, severing diplomatic relations with Iran in March.
Egyptian officials recently accused Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon, of sending an agent to Egypt to set up a terrorist cell. Hezbollah acknowledged sending the agent but said it had been trying only to help smuggle weapons into Gaza to aid Hamas in its war with Israel. It denied planning terrorist attacks on Egypt. Egyptians have also charged that Iran has undermined reconciliation between Palestinian factions; tried to instigate an uprising against the Egyptian government; become involved in domestic politics and conflicts in Sudan, Chad and other countries; and tried to spread Shiite Islamic beliefs in Sunni-majority countries. Iran has denied meddling in Arab affairs.
But while Oman is eager to maintain good relations with Cairo, it also sees Egypt as a withered Arab center struggling to reclaim its former glory.
“Unfortunately, what is going on is Egypt is creating an enemy from nothing and undermining the Egyptian role,” said Saif al-Maskery, a former official in Oman’s Foreign Ministry.
Omanis said they did not fear Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But they are concerned about Iran’s exporting its Islamic revolutionary ideology. And most of all, Iran has a far stronger conventional military force. Oman’s foreign policy reflects religious differences with Saudi Arabia. Many people in Muscat said that they saw the ultraconservative Saudi Arabian approach to Islam as more of a danger to Omani interests, and stability, than Iranian activities in the region.
Oman is a Muslim state, but 75 percent of the population is affiliated with a conservative sect called Ibadism. Over the years Saudi religious figures have tried to spread their more fundamentalist views in Oman. “We don’t allow Saudis to work in our community,” said Said al-Hashmi, manager of research for the State Council, a government advisory body.
There is also the matter of economics. Oman faces a budget deficit this year, in part because of a drop in oil revenues. It has far less oil than many of its Persian Gulf neighbors and wants to diversify its economy.
Exports to Iran provide important revenue. Allowing the smugglers to operate is another example of how Oman’s self-interest is often aligned with Iran’s.
The weathered speedboats line up along three small piers in Musandam every morning, right next to large police boats that patrol the strait. The trip is short, but many captains said it can be perilous because they have to dodge massive oil tankers and avoid Iranian coast guard patrols. “It’s all business,” said Rashed Said, 27, as he delivered 140 boxes loaded with clothing to the pier. “It’s all money.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/world/middleeast/16oman.html?_r=0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Omani Road to Iran
November 4, 2011
The Sultanate of Oman had a rocky start to the year. In February, inspired by the still nascent Arab Spring, hundreds of disenchanted Omanis took to the streets to protest unfair wages and a lack of job opportunities. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said moved quickly, promising 50,000 government jobs and $2.6 billion to promote new work opportunities in the private sector.
The results, though, have been mixed – autumn elections for a Shura advisory council have theoretically reduced the Sultan’s absolute power, but the real effects of this move remain questionable.
However, despite its domestic warts, Oman remains an important interlocutor between the United States and Iran. Unlike its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Oman has maintained very good relations with both Iran and the United States. The Iranian relationship was solidified by Oman’s neutrality during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and its subsequent efforts aimed at concluding the conflict through the United Nations. Since then, Oman’s ties with Iran have blossomed, save a few hiccups on the way.
This relationship is by far the strongest link Iran has to the Gulf Cooperation Council states and provides a valuable opening for the United States. Last month, Sultan Qaboos hosted U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Muscat to discuss a host of Iranian issues, including the recent alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. However, the visit was also a courtesy extended to Oman in thanks of Sultan Qaboos efforts to free the remaining two U.S. hikers from imprisonment in Iran. The Omani leader reportedly paid $1.5 million in bail to free the hikers, including Sarah Shroud, who was released last year.
During Clinton’s visit to Oman, the State Department released a statement indicating that the United States “expects that (the) Omanis would use their relationship with Iran, as they have in the past, to help the Iranians understand the implications of what they’re doing.” Oman remains an undervalued card for the U.S. in dealing with a truculent regime in Iran.
Thus far, it remains questionable whether Oman will be able to effect Tehran’s calculations. Iranian intransigence is a product of its vulnerable security environment and deep seated suspicion of the West’s involvement in the region. While no single state or organization alone can soothe these concerns and realities, Oman remains best placed to keep the backdoor open to ensure that there are some small victories.
The Omani Road to Iran | Flashpoints
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiny Nation Played Pivotal Role In Americans' Release
September 21, 2011
The two American men who stepped out of an Iranian prison Wednesday after spending more than two years in custody may have a tiny Persian Gulf nation to thank for greasing the wheels of their release.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, had been accused of espionage along with fellow American Sarah Shourd and sentenced to eight years in prison. They were freed in exchange for $1 million and flown to Oman.
It's not the first time the sultanate of Oman has served as a broker between Tehran and Washington. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Iran, while Oman maintains good relationships with both countries.
Oman's involvement in the case began a year ago, when it paid for Shourd's release and sent a plane to pick her up. Diplomatic sources told NPR that Oman's sultan, Qaboos bin Said, paid $500,000 each to free Bauer and Fattal — the same amount paid to liberate Shourd. Oman also provided a private plane to transport the two men to its capital city of Muscat, much like it did with Shourd.
The State Department had no immediate comment on Oman's involvement in Wednesday's releases. But when Shourd was freed, department spokesman P.J. Crowley praised Muscat as "a key interlocutor" that helped "work this case with the Iranian government."
Swiss and Iraqi officials also worked on the Americans' behalf.
Oman's role in the negotiations isn't surprising, said Alex Vantanka, a scholar at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute.
Oman is "one of the only countries to Iran's south that has never had issues with Tehran," he said.
"The Americans discovered the Omanis can be a good go-between, especially when there's a human dimension," said Mustafa Alani of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "Tehran always opens its door to the Omanis."
Situated strategically at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Oman has enjoyed a long history as a maritime transshipment hub as well as a meeting place between East and West. Therefore, Vantanka said, it's always been important for Muscat to maintain good relationships with other nations.
"It's also difficult for Iran to see Oman as a threat. It's a small country, with a small population, and it's not that wealthy because it doesn't have the oil that Saudi Arabia or its other Gulf neighbors does," he said.
Oman has remained one of Iran's few allies as Tehran has found itself increasingly isolated over its nuclear program. The sultan was the first foreign ruler to visit Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.
In the late 1960s, the Shah of Iran dispatched troops to Oman to help quash a communist revolution supported by South Yemen.
"And don't underestimate the economic ties between the two countries," Vantanka said, referring — among other things — to a pipeline in the works that would send Iranian natural gas to Oman for shipment around the world.
Muscat's relationship with Washington has been just as cordial. A treaty of navigation and friendship between the two countries dates back to 1833. Oman was one of the few Persian Gulf states to openly support the 1979 Camp David meetings that led to the Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty. Oman has allowed the U.S. to use its military bases and has shown close cooperation on counterterrorism.
"The Omanis have always been an outlier in the Gulf," said Ray Takeyh, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Theodore Karasik of the Institute of Near East and Gulf Military Analysis says that "from the Omani point of view, they see the other GCC states as being 'over there' behind the mountains; we're in front of the mountains. That separates them from the rest of what the GCC states are thinking. That's why they feel that they can have a special relationship with Iran."
Qaboos, who came to power in a 1970 palace coup, is seen as a liberal modernizer, said Alireza Nader, an international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation.
"But make no mistake — it's one-man rule, it's not a democracy," he said.
On issues such as Iran's nuclear program, Nader said: "Qaboos tends to view them very pragmatically. He also doesn't seem to be as driven by issues of religion as do many of his neighbors." That's partly thanks to the country's largely dominant Ibadi sect of Islam, which skirts the Sunni-Shia divide that has plagued many other Muslim nations.
Takeyh said Oman's ability to bridge the deep rift that separates the U.S. and Iran has raised its currency with both nations,.
"And given the political realities, that's no small accomplishment," he said.
Tiny Nation Played Pivotal Role In Americans' Release : NPR
Long live brotherly Iranian-Omani relationship!!!
