OMANI OFFICIALS CLAIM USG READY TO REVISE TIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L MUSCAT 000476 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP AND G/TIP WHITE HOUSE FOR THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2018 TAGS: PHUM PREL KCRM KWMN KPAO OIIP SMIG ELAB MU SUBJECT: OMANI OFFICIALS CLAIM USG READY TO REVISE TIP REPORT Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Alfred Fonteneau, reasons 1.4 b,d. ¶1. (C) Sources indicate that there has been discussion within the Omani government that the USG ultimately will revise the 2008 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, resulting in Oman's removal from Tier 3. The Director General (DG) of Royal Oman Police (ROP) Customs told poloff June 23 that he expects the dispute over Oman's Tier 3 ranking to be resolved soon, and that he had heard that the USG was in the process of reassessing the report. Abdullah al-Riyami, Deputy Director of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), echoed the DG's comments, even saying that he had heard an Omani delegation was preparing to visit the U.S. to work out an agreement. Oman's Minister of Information, Hamad bin Muhammad al-Rashdi, provided a formal and public airing of the Omanis' private expectations in the Egyptian Daily "al-Akhbar," in which he was quoted as saying that the U.S. administration had "promised to review the TIP report." ¶2. (C) Comment. Contacts did not name the source of their information and Post is unsure from where these opinions about the USG position were derived. It is possible that the information was borne out of Ambassador Hunaina al-Mughairy's recent conversations with USG officials in Washington. However, Humaid al-Maani, the Director of the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made no mention of these claims about USG intentions in a June 23 conversation with econoff, reiterating the Omani government's request for an official, written reply from the Department to the MFA's queries on the TIP report. End Comment. FONTENEAU