The Vatican and Oman established diplomatic ties on Thursday, marking a further widening of the Holy See’s official relations with the Arab Muslim World, Reuters reports.
In a joint statement, both sides said they wanted to promote mutual understanding and cooperation and that ambassadors would be named.
The Vatican, a sovereign city-state surrounded by Rome, now has diplomatic relations with every country on the Arabian Peninsula, except Saudi Arabia.
Oman, a Sultanate, is predominately Muslim, like the other countries on the Peninsula. Oman has only four Catholic parishes and 12 priests, the Vatican said in a separate statement.
The Vatican hopes that, with the upgrading of relations, the Church could continue to contribute to the social well-being of the country, the statement added.
Pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2019, and Bahrain last year.
In both places, he attended inter-religious meetings to promote dialogue among faiths.
READ: Pope Francis calls for preserving historical, legal status of Jerusalem
FB.AppEvents.logPageView();
};
(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
