Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman on Thursday refused to allow Israeli flights to pass through its airspace, recognizing the intense Iranian pressure, Israeli media reported.
According to a report by the Hebrew language website of Israel Hayoum, “In other words, it is not possible to benefit from the opening of Saudi airspace to Israeli aircraft, in order to shorten the flight distance to the Far East.”
The decision means Israeli soldiers and permanent personnel of the military will now have great difficulty reaching destinations in the East, including Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, India, parts of China, Seychelles and other destinations in the Far East.
If the Sultanate continues to refuse to open its airspace to Israel, the report says, Israeli flights will have to make their way through Yemeni airspace to fly east, which is “out of the question.”
The Israeli report comes amid a recent opening of relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv and American-sponsored pressure for normalization between Israel and the Gulf states, which were not part of the Ibrahim agreements in 2020.
On July 15, the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority announced that it had decided to open the Kingdom’s airspace to all air carriers that meet the requirements for transiting the country’s airspace.
The Civil Aviation Authority indicated that this decision came to complement the efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom’s position as a global platform linking the three continents and enhancing international air connectivity.
On August 4, an Israeli commercial flight bound for Tel Aviv entered Saudi airspace for the first time since Riyadh took the decision.
