US Gets Better Access To Gulf Region With Oman Port Deal

The deal will allow the US military better access the Gulf region and reduce the need to send ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime choke point off Iran.

Washington (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 25th March, 2019) The United States has clinched a strategic port deal with Oman on Sunday which US officials say will allow the US military better access the Gulf region and reduce the need to send ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime choke point off Iran.

The US embassy in Oman said in a statement that the agreement governed US access to facilities and ports in Duqm as well as in Salalah and “reaffirms the commitment of both countries to promoting mutual security goals.”

The accord is viewed through an economic prism by Oman, which wants to develop Duqm while preserving its Switzerland-like neutral role in middle Eastern politics and diplomacy.

But it comes as the United States grows increasingly concerned about Iran’s expanding missile programmes, which have improved in recent years despite sanctions and diplomatic pressure by the United States.

For Oman, the deal will further advance its efforts to transform Duqm, once just a fishing village 550 km south of capital Muscat, into a key Middle East industrial and port center, as its diversifies its economy beyond oil and gas exports.

The deal could also better position the United States in the region for what has become a global competition with China for influence.

Chinese firms once aimed to invest up to $10.7 billion in the Duqm project, a massive injection of capital into Oman, in what was expected to be a commercial, not military, arrangement.

In 2017, the African nation of Djibouti, positioned at another geostrategic choke-point, the strait of Bab Al Mandab, became home to China’s first overseas military base. The US military already had a base located just miles away, which has been crucial for operations against Daesh, Al Qaida and other militant groups.