Israeli Prime Minister Visits Oman, Offering a Possible Back Channel to Iran

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel from Oman on Friday, the first such visit by an Israeli prime minister in 22 years and a sign of closer ties for Israel with an influential Persian Gulf nation that has long acted as a regional go-between.

The meeting late Thursday with Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, was publicized by both sides only once Netanyahu had landed back in Israel. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, and Oman closed an Israeli trade office in Oman in 2000 because of animosity over the second Palestinian uprising.

For Netanyahu, improved relations with Oman could offer a back channel for communication with some of Israel’s enemies in the region.

Located at the foot of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman has carefully managed to maintain cordial relations with countries that are adversaries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. It hosted secret talks between Iran and the United States in 2013 that paved the way for broader negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and there was speculation in Israel on Friday that Oman could serve as a back channel between Israel and Iran, Israel’s archenemy.

For Oman, hosting Netanyahu could win favor with the White House, which has taken a strongly partisan turn toward supporting Israel. The visit to Oman came against the background of reports that the Trump administration may soon present its plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Omani television aired two minutes of video of the meeting, with celebratory trumpet music playing in the background.

A senior Israeli official who is well acquainted with the details of the visit, and who requested anonymity in order to discuss classified issues, said that given Oman’s image as an honest broker to all countries in the region there was a possibility that the now-public relationship with Netanyahu could open more doors for Israel. The official said he did not rule out the possibility that Oman could become a secret channel for Israel not just with Iran but also with Syria.

Oman also maintains good relations with Israel’s other enemies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

The visit was the fruit of four months of negotiations, according to the Israeli official, and follows many years of secret relations between Israel and Oman, led by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and Sultan Qaboos, who has led Oman since 1970.

Oman gets to show the West a relatively liberal and modern face of the Gulf and one that is in step with the policies of the U.S. administration, the official said. Israel, for its part, hopes the visit will ultimately lead to the return of some kind of diplomatic representation in Oman. Israel maintained another trade office in Qatar until that, too, was shut down in 2009.

For years, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has run a Twitter account that it calls @IsraelintheGCC, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance of six countries in the Arabian Peninsula including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, none that have formal diplomatic relations with Israel. The ministry describes the account as the “official channel of the virtual Israeli Embassy to GCC countries, dedicated to promoting dialogue with the people of the GCC region.”

In an interview last year with a London-based newspaper owned by a Saudi businessman, Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, said Israel was willing to share intelligence with moderate Arab states as part of the effort against Iran.

Netanyahu’s visit came days after the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was in Oman. Sultan Qaboos has expressed interest in mediating between the Palestinians and Israel. But Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Israel was more interested in Oman as a conduit to Tehran.

Despite the talk of an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, tensions keep rising between Israel and Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rivals Abbas.

On Friday, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire during stormy weekly protests along the Gaza border, and a Gaza militant was killed when a bomb he was making exploded in his home. Israeli aircraft struck three Hamas military posts. Gaza militants responded by firing a barrage of up to a dozen short-range rockets into southern Israel. Several were intercepted while others missed their mark.

The public nature of the visit to Oman is a coup for Netanyahu, a conservative who has long touted Israel’s hush-hush ties with former Arab foes as part of the Sunni axis against Shiite Iran.

Netanyahu has also advocated an “outside-in” policy where Arab states could pressure the Palestinian leadership into making the concessions he requires for an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

That approach appeared to have run into some trouble recently, with Saudi Arabia, seen as the linchpin of the strategy, struggling to rebut accusations that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of a Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

But the visit to Oman came as some vindication for Netanyahu, who leads a government dominated by right-wing and religious parties. The prime minister was accompanied by his wife, Sara; the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen; senior officials from Israel’s National Security Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the prime minister’s chief of staff and military secretary.

“The visit was symbolic and extraordinary,” said Yoel Guzansky, an Israeli expert on the Gulf States and Iran at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “Symbolism is very important in the Middle East.”

Sultan Qaboos, 77, is frail, Guzansky said, while Netanyahu, who has been plagued by corruption investigations and faces possible bribery charges, is entering an election year in Israel. With the meeting in Oman, Guzansky said, Netanyahu is “telling those who may have doubted, ‘Look, my approach is working. Nobody cares about the Palestinians, I’m welcomed everywhere and it’s just the beginning.'”

In another sign of warming ties with the Gulf countries, Israel’s often provocative right-wing culture and sports minister, Miri Regev, traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Friday to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018.