PM meeting with world leaders on Iran and Syria at Warsaw Summit; Oman: People of the Middle East have suffered a lot because they are stuck to the past. This is a new era for the future and for prosperity for every nation; Netanyahu to meet Pence and Pompeo.
Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Oman’s representative to the Warsaw Summit on Wednesday.
The prime minister held a meeting with the Sultanate of Oman’s Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah on the first day of the conference. Netanyahu previously met the minister alongside Mossad Director Yossi Cohen during his surprise visit to Muscat to meet with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said in October of last year. Oman called for regional recognition of the State of Israel at that time.
Netanyahu stated Wednesday in Warsaw, “The courageous decision of Sultan Qaboos to invite me to Oman is changing the world. It’s pointing the way for many others to do what you said, not to be stuck in the past, but to seize the future. Many are following this lead, and may I say, including in this conference.” He thanked the minister for Oman’s “positive policy that can lead to peace and prosperity for all. I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel, and I allow myself to say on behalf of many people in the Middle East.”
Alawi responded, “This is an important and new vision for the future. People of the Middle East have suffered a lot because they are stuck to the past. This is a new era for the future and for prosperity for every nation.”
Netanyahu was personally invited by the Sultan to Oman last year, the first visit of an Israeli official to Oman since 1996, after “lengthy contacts between the two countries”. Former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres was the last Israeli official to visit Oman.
Since then, Oman’s foreign minister has defended Oman’s call for recognition of the State of Israel in public forums and to regional authorities. Following Netanyahu’s visit to Oman, he stated at a Middle East security conference, “Israel is a state present in the region and we all understand this. The world is also aware of this and maybe it is time for Israel to be treated the same [as other states] and to also bear the same obligations… We should consider giving equal treatment to Israel among the other countries in the Middle East. Jews are part of history that touches Islam and the existence of the State of Israel is a fact that should not be ignored…”
Netanyahu spoke to the press following his meeting on Wednesday and ahead of a meeting with “60 foreign ministers and envoys of countries from around the world against Iran. What is important about this meeting – and this meeting is not in secret, because there are many of those – is that this is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of combating Iran.”
He added, “What we are doing is pushing and driving Iran from Syria. We are committed to doing this. It is cold in Warsaw right now but Israel’s foreign relations are warming up… for the better.”
Photo: motioncenter/Shutterstock.com
