Alwaght- A campaign by the Israeli officials over the past few months to persuade the Arab countries to open their airspace to the Israeli flights appears to have proven a failure to Tel Aviv. Israeli media outlets reported that Oman did not Israeli planes to fly in its airspace. The Muscat opposition means that Israeli planes cannot take advantage of Saudi Arabia opening its airspace to them to make the time of their flights to East Asia shorter.
Oman's decision comes whereas in recent days the CEO of the Israeli airline EL AL claimed that in the next few days, Oman will open its skies to the planes of this company, similar to Saudi Arabia. According to this Israeli official, although this company has been allowed to fly through the skies of Saudi Arabia, in order to shorten flights to East Asian destinations, Israeli planes need to fly through the skies of Oman as well. Two months ago, Riyadh stated that it will open its skies to Israeli planes as a prelude to the normalization of relations in the future, but since Israeli planes need to fly over Oman en route to Asian countries for shorter flight times, Oman's decision can make the flights longer.
Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to the Israeli planes following President Joe Biden's visit to the kingdom in mid-July. If they are allowed to pass through Oman, the time it takes to reach such countries as India and Thailand will be shorter 1.5-2 hours. The airlines also can save money on fuel costs. Currently, Israeli companies fly south over the Red Sea for these destinations and after bypassing Yemen they reach the Indian Ocean and the rest of Asia.
Israeli shot misses aim
One of the main drivers behind normalization with Arab countries is expansion of Israeli air transportation to facilitate their trade with East Asia. But Oman's opposition has practically shattered the hopes for shorter Israeli flights. The decision will render ineffective the Saudi move to open airspace to Israeli planes to appease Tel Aviv leaders. In other words, Oman's action can disrupt and lengthen the course of normalization between the Saudis and the Israelis.
With Oman located along a route between the Israeli regime and East Asia, Israeli officials have been pushing for years to get Muscat on their side. Despite bilateral meetings of officials of the two sides, Muscat has not yet normalized its relations with Tel Aviv. The Omani leaders consider any normalization of relations with the Israeli regime as "a stab in the back" of the Palestinian cause and liberation struggle, and considering the sensitivities of the public opinion of the Arab world towards this issue, they refuse to enter into this dangerous initiative. In recent months, Saudis leaders have tried to publicize the normalization in any way possible, and were setting their eyes on Biden's mediation, but the course of developments in West Asia did not go as they wished, delaying the normalization scenario.
Some Israeli news outlets have claimed that Oman did not give permission to Israeli airlines under Iran's pressure. This is while Oman acts independently in its foreign policy and determines its interests based on its national needs, and Tehran has not made such requests from Muscat.
There are other Israeli objectives behind Tel Aviv calls for Oman to open its airspace. With the opening of Arab airspace to their planes, the Israelis want to refuel in these countries from time to time and pave the way for interaction of Israeli citizens and officials with Arab countries and build influence in the region with such communications. The same policy was implemented with Saudi Arabia in recent months, especially during the Hajj rituals, and Riyadh issued visas to some Israeli citizens to walk freely and without any disturbance in the streets of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The same project could also be run in Oman, but the Omanis foiled it.
Sending Israeli citizens to Arab countries as tourists is the first step for influence in the Arab countries. The normalization with the UAE and Bahrain started from this point and secret visits of citizens were eventually given publicity by normalization. After the thaw agreements, there were many reports of Israeli visits to the two Arab countries taken place in the past years, showing that normalization did not take place overnight.
Despite efforts to bring Arab countries to their camp in an effort to sideline Iran, Tel Aviv is meeting its failure. Actually, the regional nations have become aware of the evil intentions of the Israelis and are not playing in a dangerous game designed to bring Muslim states to a confrontation.
