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