The Latest: Oman says it will open embassy in West Bank

World

The Latest: Oman says it will open embassy in West Bank

The Associated Press

June 26, 2019 12:06 AM

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A trash trolly decorated with a photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a demonstration organized by the Islamic militant group Hamas against a U.S.-sponsored Middle East economic workshop in Bahrain, in front of the United Nations headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 25, 2019. The Trump administration is plowing ahead with a $50 billion economic proposal to aid the Palestinians and hopes it’ll drive a much-anticipated but unseen Mideast peace plan. The two—day workshop is to begin Tuesday, where the Trump administration’s Mideast peace team hopes to drum up regional support and secure financial pledges from Arab and Israeli stakeholders.


Bilal Hussein

AP Photo


MANAMA, Bahrain

The Latest on developments surrounding a U.S.-hosted conference in Bahrain about Washington’s economic plan for the Palestinians (all times local):

9:55 a.m.

The sultanate of Oman has announced it will open an embassy in the West Bank, in the city of Ramallah. The announcement comes as Bahrain hosts a summit on a U.S. Mideast peace plan by the Trump administration, focusing on the Palestinian economy.

A tweet from the Omani Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced the embassy plans. The ministry says the decision comes “in continuation of the sultanate’s support for the Palestinian people.”

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Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, runs its own foreign policy, often at odds with its Gulf Arab neighbors, such as maintaining close ties to Iran.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said also hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last October — the first visit by an Israeli leader in over 20 years. In 1996, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres visited Oman.

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9:20 a.m.

The heads of international financial institutions and global investors are addressing a conference intended to boost a $50 billion U.S. economic plan for the Palestinians.

Despite widespread doubts about the proposal, which has been rejected by the Palestinians, the chiefs of the IMF and World Bank will offer suggestions for making the plan a success.

Also speaking Wednesday to the “Peace to Prosperity” workshop in Bahrain are former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the head of the international football federation FIFA and the lone Palestinian on the agenda, a West Bank businessman who is viewed with deep suspicion by many fellow Palestinians.

The plan’s architect, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will make a return appearance and the two-day conference will close with an address by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

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