We don’t think of Oman as a hot shot player on the Syrian turf. But the United States apparently does. And that’s ostensibly the reason why Secretary of State included Muscat into his rushed Middle East itinerary for the Friends of Syria meet in Amman later today where the momentous decision is expected — albeit, a mere formality — on the western-backed Syrian opposition coalition’s consent to participate in the proposed peace meet in Geneva in June. The official version by the VOA, here, is that Kerry is drumming up Oman’s support for the “Syria peace consensus.”
But, please, don’t miss the fine print — “Kerry’s visit is to include talks about Oman’s planned $2.1 billion purchase of an air defense system from US defense firm Raytheon.” Hmm, a mere sentence gives away the real story, isn’t it?
Washington is making a determined push to persuade Oman to come within the ambit of the US’ missile defence system. The ABM deployments have been on course in the Persian Gulf region and the Raytheon-built system is part of a coordinated, anti-missile defence network, which the US is putting in place in an arc stretching from Central Europe via Turkey upto the western edges of the Indian Ocean region.
The Pentagon recently sought $9.2 billion in fiscal 2014 and $45.7 billion in future years from the US Congress for the ABM development and deployments. During the Congressional hearing, the Pentagon official spoke of a “comprehensive US effort to strengthen regional deterrence.” The Persian Gulf was bracketed with Europe and the Asia-Pacific (here).
The stated raison d’etre lies in the “disturbing trends in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere around the globe.” The “elsewhere” of course means Russia and China.
However, Oman has nothing to fear from Syria, Iran, North Korea, Russia or China and is universally regarded as a friendly country. Indeed, it has kept a scrupulous distance from the Sunni Arab machinations to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad.
Oman isn’t a frontline state vis-a-vis Iran, either. In fact, not only do Muscat and Tehran get along rather splendidly, but Oman has remained “neutral” in the Saudi-Iranian discord. By the way, the vast majority of Oman’s population is non-Sunni Muslim.
The real US intentions remain opaque. What emerges is that the deployments of the ABM system in the Persian Gulf also factor in the growing nuclear and missile capabilities of Pakistan and India.
If there is a “String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean, it could turn out to be this in the fulness of time. But then, this is not a takeaway for the Indian pundits who don’t like to see the US’ strategies of global hegemony as anything but benign. | 
