Oman
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary:Non-signatory Oman has never elaborated its views on cluster munitions or its position on acceding to the convention.Oman has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2016. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017.
Oman is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. It has imported cluster munitions and likely possesses a stockpile, but there is no evidence or allegations that Oman has used cluster munitions.
Policy
The Sultanate of Oman has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Oman has never commented publicly on its views on cluster munitions or position on acceding to the convention.[1] Government officials said in 2016 that Oman was studying the convention, but did not indicate when that process would conclude.[2]
Oman participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but it did not sign the convention in December 2008.[3]
Oman has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in September 2016.[4]
In December 2017, Oman abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] It has not explained why it abstained from this vote or the votes on the previous UNGA resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.
Oman has previously voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[6]
Oman is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Oman is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.
Oman imported and possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions. In 2002, the United States (US) announced the sale of 50 CBU-97/105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons to Oman.[7] Jane’s Information Group reports that Oman possesses BL755 and Rockeye cluster bombs.[8] It also has 122mm Grad-type and Hyrda-70 rocket launchers, but it is not known if the last two include ammunition stockpiles that include cluster munitions.
[1] In September 2013, a government official informed the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that Oman participates as an observer in the convention’s meetings to learn more about the convention and observe its development. Interview with Khaled Hardan, Director of Disarmament, Ministry Foreign Affairs, in Lusaka, Zambia, 11 September 2013.
[2] ICBL-CMC meeting with Hamood Al-Towayce, Alternate Permanent Representative of Oman to the UN in New York, New York, October 2016.
[3] For more details on Oman’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Practice and Policy (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 224–225.
[4] Oman participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011, 2013, and 2016, as well as the First Review Conference in 2015.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017. Oman voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2016, but abstained in 2017.
[7] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “News Release: Oman-F-16 Aircraft Munitions,” Transmittal No. 02-16, 10 April 2002.
[8] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 843; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal, CD-edition, 10 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).