Oman

The Sultanate of Oman occupies the southeastern Arabian Peninsula in West Asia, bordered by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, with Muscat as its capital and largest city. Oman is described as the oldest independent state in the Arab world and emerged as a regional maritime power in the seventeenth century; the Al Bu Said dynasty has ruled continuously since 1744. It operates as an absolute monarchy in which the sultan serves as both head of state and head of government, currently Haitham bin Tariq, who succeeded Qaboos bin Said on his death in 2020; Qaboos's assumption of power in 1970 began what is called the Omani Renaissance, a period of rapid modernization that abolished slavery, ended the Dhofar Rebellion and established constitutional governance. With a 2026 population estimate of about 5.4 million across 315,331 square kilometers, Oman is roughly 95 percent Muslim and the World Bank classifies it as a high income economy holding the world's twenty-second largest oil reserves.