Said Amouri
October 25, 2020•Update: October 25, 2020
JERUSALEM
Oman will be the next Arab country to normalize relations with Israel, according to Israeli media on Sunday.
Israeli officials believe that Oman will soon sign a normalization deal with Israel under US sponsorship, Israeli Channel 12 reported.
The channel, however, said that the normalization of the Israeli-Omani relations would likely take place after the US election.
Muscat so far has not commented on the Israeli media report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed recently that "other countries will follow", in reference to Israel's normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan.
Oman welcomed the Emirati and Bahraini moves to normalize relations with Israel.
In 2018, Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Oman and met with late Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that Sudan and Israel agreed to normalize their relations.
Sudan became the fifth Arab country to establish official ties with Israel following Egypt in 1979, Jordan in 1994 and both UAE and Bahrain in September 2020.
* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara
