Oman
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Non-signatory Oman has never commented on the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions or elaborated its position on joining the convention.It last participated in a meeting of the convention in September 2019. Oman abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.
Oman is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has imported them and likely possesses a stockpile. There is no evidence that Oman has used cluster munitions.
Policy
The Sultanate of Oman has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Oman has never commented on the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions or elaborated its position on joining the convention.[1]
Oman participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but did not sign the convention.[2]
Oman has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.[3] It was invited to, but did not attend the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.
In December 2020, Oman abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] 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 (CCW).
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Oman is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.
Oman has imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile. In 2002, the United States (US) announced the sale of 50 CBU-97/105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons to Oman.[5] Jane’s Information Group has reported that Oman possesses BL755 and Rockeye cluster bombs.[6] Oman also possesses 122mm Grad-type and Hyrda-70 rocket launchers, but it is not known if they deliver cluster munition payloads.
[1] In 2016, government officials from Oman have told campaigners that Oman was studying the convention. International Campaign to Ban Landmines-Cluster Munition Coalition (CBL-CMC) meeting with Hamood Al-Towayce, Permanent Representative of Oman to the UN in New York, New York, October 2016. In 2013, a government official said Oman participated in the convention’s meetings to learn more about the provisions and observe its progress. CMC meeting with Khaled Hardan, Director of Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Lusaka, Zambia, 11 September 2013.
[2] For further details on Oman’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Practice and Policy (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 224–225.
[3] Oman participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 as well as Meetings of States Parties in 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions”, UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.
[5] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “News Release: Oman-F-16 Aircraft Munitions,” Transmittal No. 02-16, 10 April 2002.
[6] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 843; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal, CD-edition, 10 January 2008 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).