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Oman Denies Arms Smuggled through Border to Yemen
[An Nahar] Oman has strongly deniedNo, no! Certainly not! claims that arms were being smuggled through its long border with Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... to Shiite Houthis, saying traffickers were using unmonitored areas of the war-torn nation's coast. "This is baseless," said the sultanate's foreign ministry in a statement on its website late Thursday. "There are no weapons passing through the sultanate's territory" to Yemen. The denial came in response to media reports of arms being smuggled through Oman. Oman, one of the few Arab states which have good relations with Iran, a backer of the Huthis, has used its links to mediate peace talks between the hard boyz and Yemen's U.N.-recognized government. The foreign ministry said the issue of arms smuggling "has been proven false after being discussed with member states of the (pro-government) Arab coalition, the United States and the United Kingdom." "Yemeni shores that are close to Oman's coast are not subjected to the control of any government authority in Yemen. Therefore, these shores are open to arms smugglers," it added. Oman is the only Arab nation in the Gulf that has remained outside the Saudi-led coalition which in March 2015 launched a military campaign against the rebels in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Posted by: Fred 2016-10-22 |
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