Are Oman and Indonesia next in line to make peace with Israel?

U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that more Israeli-Arab normalization deals are coming soon and that Oman and Indonesia are next in line.

“The momentum is now on the side of the peacemakers,” O’Brien said during visit to Jerusalem today. “Others will follow because the way of peace is far better than the way offered by terrorists... and radical clerics.”

“Nations in the region are putting aside old ideas and old grievances and embracing a better future,” O’Brien said.

“There is speculation that Oman and Indonesia would be next,” he added.

The Hebrew language Yediot Aharonot reported on Sunday that Israeli officials believe the Sultanate of Oman will be the next country to formalize ties with Israel.

ALL ARAB NEWS also put Oman on the short list right before the Abraham Accords were signed and the Sultanate had responded positively to the United Arab Emirates and Bahraini decisions to normalize relations with Israel.

Oman welcomed the announcement of normalization between Israel and Morocco as well last week.

“[Oman] welcomes what Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced in his phone calls with U.S President [Donald] Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and hopes this will further endeavors to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Omani Foreign Ministry said in a statement said.

Relations between Oman and Israel have warmed in recent years. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu secretly visited Oman in 2018 and met with its late leader Sultan Qaboos. The visit was publicized after Netanyahu returned to Israel.

Ever since the Abraham Accords were signed in September between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Oman has consistently been mentioned as another country in the cards to declare peace with Israel. Indonesia has more recently come up as a possibility.

Oman and Indonesia would make the fifth and sixth Muslim nations to establish diplomatic relations with Israel over the last four months, after the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, which joined in October, and Morocco, which announced last week.

Yesterday Israel announced full diplomatic relations with Bhutan, a Buddhist nation in Asia.

The report in Yediot listed several other countries that Israel is believed to be in talks with including Niger, Mali, Djibouti, Mauritania and Comoros in Africa, and Indonesia, Pakistan, Brunei, Bangladesh and the Maldives in Asia.

Trump’s senior advisor Jared Kushner, who was instrumental in brokering these deals, said last week that Saudi Arabia will also establish ties with Israel, it was only “a matter of time.”

In a news conference today with O’Brien, Netanyahu thanked Trump for his efforts in brokering these historic deals.

“Under President Trump, the United States and Israel are working together closer than ever before,” Netanyahu said.