Middle East & Africa | New blood begins to simmer

Oman’s sultan breaks with the past in economics

An oil windfall is a boon to public finances, but reminds Oman that it must diversify

|MUSCAT

WHEN TWO British prisoners were freed from Iran in March, it was no surprise that Oman was their first stop. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, held for years on bogus espionage charges, were freed as part of a deal that saw Britain settle an old debt with Iran. Oman was the essential middleman, providing an air-force jet to fly the prisoners to freedom and a bank to serve as a conduit for the British payment.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Break with the past”

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