Oman

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 08 July 2019

Summary: Non-signatoryOman has never elaborated its views on cluster munitions or position on acceding to the convention.It has participated as an observer in meetings of the convention, most recently in 2018. Oman abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2018.

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 elaborated its views on cluster munitions or position on joining the convention. [1] Government officials have said that Oman is studying the convention. [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 meetings of the convention, most recently the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. [4] It did not make a statement at the meeting.

In December 2018, 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] Oman has abstained from the vote on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

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. [6] Jane’s Information Group reports that Oman possesses BL755 and Rockeye cluster bombs. [7] 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 2013, a government official told the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that Oman participates as an observer in meetings to learn more about the convention and observe its progress. 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, 2016, and 2018, as well as the First Review Conference in 2015.

 [5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 73/54, 5 December 2018.

 [6] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “News Release: Oman-F-16 Aircraft Munitions,” Transmittal No. 02-16, 10 April 2002.

 [7] 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).