Iraqi troops being trained in Oman

Those of you who hang around airports and hotels in the Sultanate may have noticed the common appearance of well built Americans with very short hair and large necks, sometimes accompanied by short wiry Arabic-looking men with big moustaches wearing new civilian clothes.

I can explain. It seems that the American military are flying into Oman lots of Iraqi troops and police for training here rather than in Iraq. Obviously it’s much, much safer to do that here, where security can be assured and they can also be assisted by the Omani forces for translation and support (plus the Omanis would be an excellent example to the Iraqis of competent Arabic soldiers too). Since 1980 Oman and the U.S. have been parties to a military cooperation agreement, which was revised and renewed in 2000.

The Americans are also using Jordan for these ex-Iraq training sorties too, although they operate somewhat more openly than here. My sources couldn’t supply me with numbers being trained and I will not say where in the Sultanate the training is taking place for obvious reasons.

I think it’s a great example of the sort of undercover support that His Majesty gives to other Arab countries and is a significant - and real - contribution to the wider region’s stability. It also provides lots of brownie points from the US Government, which is great for Oman too.