A senior Palestinian official said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Oman’s Sultan Qaboos that he was willing to give up some land to the Palestinians, but not security control.
“The Omani foreign minister informed us of what Netanyahu told Sultan Qaboos,” said Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee. “We were notified that Netanyahu told him that he was ready to cede some land, but he would not give up security control.”
The Israeli premier met Sultan Qaboos in Muscat in late October as part of an Omani plan to advance peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
Ahmad noted that President Mahmoud Abbas told Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi, during a meeting in Ramallah, that Netanyahu had not come up with anything new and was not serious about reaching an agreement with the Palestinians.
“Abbas told Oman’s foreign minister that what Netanyahu said is old talk that he often repeats,” Al-Ahmad said, as quoted by Times of Israel. “He told him that what he said is a form of deception and that Netanyahu is not serious about peace.”
A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment in response to a question on the PLO official’s remarks.
The Sultanate of Oman launched mediation efforts between Palestinians and Israelis, with Sultan Qaboos receiving Abbas and Netanyahu, respectively, in Muscat in October. The Omanis tried to bring the views closer in an attempt to start a new peace process based on the US peace plan.
In this regard, the Omani foreign minister said that his country was proposing ideas to help the Palestinian and Israeli sides converge, but did not play the role of mediator. He said his country “counts on the United States and the efforts of its president, Donald Trump, to work towards the deal of the century.”
