TEHRAN - Jamal Wakim, professor of History and International Relations at Lebanese University, has said that the Zionist regime of Israel has the strategic objective of gaining control over the Strait of Hormuz.

“After Al Saud’s failure to normalize Israeli-Arabic relations, the Zionists have found Oman Sultanate and the country’s Sultan [Qaboos bin Said al Said] suitable options to reach their strategic objectives such as normalizing relations with Arabs and ruling over Strait of Hormuz,” he told ILNA in an interview published on Sunday.

He noted that Israel seeks to use Oman as a tool to threaten Iran’s interests.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an unannounced trip to Oman on Thursday.

Netanyahu along with a delegation, including Yossi Cohen, the director of the Mossad spy agency, and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, arrived in Muscat on Thursday night and flew back to the occupied Palestinian territories later on Friday, making it the first such meeting in over 20 years.

A joint statement by Netanyahu and Oman’s ruler Sultan Qaboos said the two sides “discussed ways to advance” the so-called Middle East peace process and “a number of issues of mutual interest to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday that the Zionist regime of Israel seeks to cause division among the Muslim countries to cover 70 years of occupation and aggression.

“From our viewpoint, the Islamic countries in the region should not give space to the occupant regime of Israel under the White House pressure to take moves and cause new problems in the region,” he said.

NA