Oman News Agency reported on Thursday that the country’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi held a phone talk with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid. This came as the first contact between the two diplomats after Lapid assumed the Foreign Minister post under the newly formed government led by Naftali Bennett in Israel.
The Omani Foreign Minister reportedly expressed his country’s hope regarding the steps that the new Israeli government would take to elicit the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
According to the statement, Sayyid Badr Busaidi reiterated his country’s well-known policy of peace, referring to a neutrality policy, during the conversation. Oman uttered its commitment to the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine on all occasions.
In February, following the speculations indicating that Oman would be the next country to normalize relations with Israel, following the steps of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain which signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords, Busaidi stated that his country is “content so far with the current level of relations and dialogue with Israel, which involves the appropriate channels of communications.”
Israeli Minister Lapid will pay a visit to the UAE next week, which would be the first official visit by an Israeli Minister to the Gulf country since they established diplomatic relations. During his visit, Lapid will attend the inauguration ceremony of the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of Israel in Dubai.
