The weekend.

Well it's certainly been a busy week hasnt it?

The Egypt situation seems to be settling down now that Mr Mubarak has announced he will step down in September. I'm not going to get further into that here!

Oman came out on Sunday the 30th Jan and announced that it had busted a UAE spy network. This quickly got picked up by regular news sources and has not really been followed up. Of course, local blogger Undercover Dragon blogged about this in November last year. I understand that both Omani's and Emiraties were arrested, and that they will all be put on trial. I also understand that the penalty for treason is death by hanging.

A member of the local forum (Karim), Oman Forum, recently posted this comment relating to this story:

The first time I heard about this was months ago, something like 6 months I think, as it was summer and very humid and I was having a drink at one of the security apparatus beach front recreation clubs at North Azaiba Beach, if you follow my drift.

I couldn’t believe it at the time, and the person who told was half drunk any way. But over time, this issues started to snow ball in the virtual world and blogosphere, and then came the Omani government official statement, as yes, Oman vaunted security apparatus was infiltrated by the security agencies of Abu Dhabi, and that this breach went quite high in a number of security, military, economic and government departments, a very comprehensive rap sheet.

What bugged me, and still does, is Why? Why would MBZ (Mohammed Bin Zayed) spy on Oman?

MBZ is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and there is an interesting story about him and Oman. MBZ is the first born of late Sheikh Zayed from his favorite wife, Sheikha Fatima. MBZ and his full brothers make what is currently known as the fatmyds. These brothers are very powerful in Abu Dhabi, they literally control the Country. The then crown prince, and now president and ruler of Abu Dhabi, half brother to MBZ, is Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, henceforth referred to as KBZ.

MBZ tried to overthrow his father Sheikh Zayed when he was in death bed. MBZ plan was to take over so that KBZ does not become ruler and president. Some in the know told me that it was Oman security agencies that uncovered the plot, and warned KBZ and some other elders in the Alnahyaan family about the plot. MBZ then fled the UAE, and was given shelter in Oman.

During MBZ exile, Oman worked out a solution that will allow for KBZ to become ruler, and MBZ crown prince. This seemed to have satisfied all parties.

As of late, MBZ seem to have come to know that Oman has played a pivotal role in delaying his path to the presidency, and wants to play the same trick on us, i.e., since Oman does not have a crown prince or heir apparent, who will be Sultan if god forbid His Majesty Sultan Qaboos passes away? And can MBZ influence or better still, pick the next Sultan?

MBZ plan goes way pas regime change, it goes as far as annexing Oman into an extended UAE, more than doubling its land, and quadrupling its people. MBZ is your typical megalomaniac, the sooner he is out of the picture, the better.

I think that's fairly interesting and worth sharing here. Perhaps this issue has been an ongoing one as opposed to one day of arrests. I say this because an un-named Omani official (quoted by Al Jazeera) said that this story refers to arrests made in November last year.

In other news, the ongoing Wikileaks issues states that 1 Emirati and 3 Qatari men are wanted by the US for their involvement in the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Hmmm.

As for local things - the Muscat Festival is ongoing and well worth a visit this weekend, I plan to go hunting for some nice pots!

Have a nice weekend everyone.

le fin.