Oman and Iran: friends with many benefits

Oman shares the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and maintains cordial relations with Tehran, despite the former’s membership in the mostly anti-Iranian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). As Iran gradually reintegrates into the global economy, Oman is becoming a stepping stone for Iranian companies seeking to penetrate new African, Asian and Arab markets.

Oman’s emergence as a critical trade hub linking Iran to several continents is consistent with the sultanate’s independent foreign policy, which often operates outside the GCC framework. Oman’s commercial, cultural and geospatial links to non-Arab lands are rooted in its history as ruler of an empire that stretched across portions of modern-day India, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Mozambique and Tanzania. Oman’s pan-Indian Ocean identity often transcends its Arab/Islamic identity and its membership in the Saudi-led GCC.

Now that Iran is shedding the sanctions it has borne for years, Oman has new opportunities to position itself as an increasingly important trade corridor.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was implemented Jan. 16. Six days later, Gulf News reported that Tehran’s ambassador to Muscat, Ali Akbar Sibaveh, declared that Iran will “repay” Oman’s capital, Muscat, for its influential role in getting the nuclear deal passed and the sanctions lifted. Sibaveh said, “Friends at times of need are few and Oman stood with us through thick and thin, and we do not forget our friends.”