A senior Israeli official recently met with the Foreign Minister of Oman, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood al-Busaidi as part of Israel's efforts to add more countries to the Abraham Accords, i24NEWS reported.
According to the report, the meeting took place at the MEDRC forum in Oman, which was attended by Israel’s Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General and Head of Middle East & Peace Process Division.
Oman reportedly is interested in normalizing relations with Israel, but the government wants the agreement to be its own thing, separate from the previous agreements Israel reached with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Israel wants Oman to open its skies to flights to and from Israel, which would allow airlines to fully take advantage of the opening of Saudi airspace to Israeli flights, It was reported in September that progress had been made in talks on that issue during meetings at the UN General Assembly.
It is believed Oman is making demands both towards Israel and the US and wants a return, though it is not clear whether that return is economic or security in nature.
In October of 2018, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Oman, and it seemed there was a warming of ties between the countries.
Later, then-Minister Yisrael Katz also visited Oman, where he presented a plan for the construction of a railway between Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
However, Oman’s Foreign Minister said last year that his country will not be the next in line to sign a normalization agreement with Israel.