Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise visit to Oman pried open a door to the Persian Gulf usually shut to Israelis, and several of his Cabinet members are following him through.
Israeli Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara, an Arab-speaking Druze citizen of Israel, is to attend today a conference in Dubai of the International Telecommunications Union, while Israeli Minister of Transportation and Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz is to participate next week in another international conference in the Omani capital, Muscat. Israel Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev has been in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since Friday last week, accompanying Israel’s national judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam jiujitsu tournament.
“It’s a sign that Israel and the Arab world are moving closer,” said Michael Oren, Netanyahu’s deputy minister for public diplomacy.
Photo: AP
Israel’s ties with Gulf states have warmed in the past few years, primarily over a shared distrust of Iran and its push for regional hegemony.
US President Donald Trump has promoted this rapprochement, seeing Saudi Arabia and other Middle East allies as key to his policy of confronting Iran and advancing the regional peace proposal that he has promised to deliver soon.
That approach has been complicated as its linchpin, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, faces an international outcry over the killing of government critic Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Gulf countries are gradually making gestures to accept Israel, prodded by Trump and their desire to participate in international activities that forbid their barring other UN member states.
In a statement after his weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said his visit with Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos Al Said, included “very important talks for Israel’s security,” adding: “There will be more.”
Not everyone welcomed the breakthrough.
“Visits by teams and officials from the Israeli enemy to Gulf capitals pain our hearts,” prominent UAE political commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdullah wrote on Twitter. “If governments see it necessary to welcome them, people still have choices, and I choose to say a thousand times ‘no’ to normalization with the Israeli enemy.”
Oman has often been a go-between to resolve issues between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and its ruler was an important back channel in discussions between Iran, the US and other world powers that led to the 2015 nuclear deal, said Riad al-Khouri, a director of political risk adviser GeoEconomica, which based in Amman.
Last year, when Israeli Tal Flicker won a gold medal at the Grand Slam, Abu Dhabi organizers refused to display Israel’s flag or play its national anthem.
This year, threatened with being stripped of hosting the tournament, the emirate relented: Israeli Sagi Muki won a gold medal on Sunday and with Regev in attendance, Israel’s national anthem Hatikvah was played.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS