Omani Liberation Army

This file relates to the military situation in Muscat and Oman. It contains correspondence concerning:

• Situation reports, updates, and telegrams on military matters in Oman. It includes the arrival of a platoon of King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in Sharjah; the surrender of Tanuf and Bahlah [Bahla]; preparations to attack Sait [Bilad Sayt] and Ghumr; and the movement of the Trucial Oman Scouts and the Cameronians
• HMG’s publicity over the Oman situation. It includes B A B Burrows’s press conferences; the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Saeed Bin Taimur’s statement on the ending of the uprising on 14 August 1957; a request for a copy of the edition of Paris Match with the article on Oman to be dispatched to Bahrain; the search for Arab journalists to cover the conflict favourably; and the facilities for Agence France Presse
• The capture of Sultan Bin Sulaiman Bin Himyar Al Nabhani the son of Sheikh Sulaiman Bin Himyar Al Nabhani; and his imprisonment in Muscat with the question of whether he could be more useful in obtaining the loyalty of the Bani Riyam tribe
• The issue of Oman at the UN and the Arab League. It includes the Arab League’s efforts, led by Egypt and Syria, to get Oman inscribed on the agenda of the Security Council; HMG’s efforts to prevent this; the suggestion that the Sultan should send an independent representative there; the Sultan’s disavowal of the UN’s right to interfere in the Sultanate’s internal affairs; and the need for the Sultan to thank Iraq for its delaying of the Arab League’s consensus on Oman
• The offer from Zanzibar to help negotiate a truce between the Sultan and the Imam; and the Sultan’s rejection of this
• The local opinion in Kuwait on Oman
• The international press reaction to the Oman situation, including the press in Tehran and the US. It also includes an article translated into French from the Iranian newspaper Ettela’at
• The attitude of the US to the Oman situation and HMG’s actions; its request for a copy of the Treaty of Sib [Treaty of Seeb]; and its decision to abstain, and not vote against, inscription of Oman at the UN
• HMG’s thanks to the Quai d’Orsay for France’s helpful attitude over Oman
• The reassurance from J Terry Duce to HMG that ARAMCO have no ambitions for Oman
• The statements of Swaidan Bin Halait Al Hina'i and Saleem Bin Hamad Al Hina'i on their experience in the Omani Liberation Army.