Long-form name: Sultanate of Oman

Type: absolute monarchy; independent, with residual UK influence

Capital: Muscat

Administrative divisions: none

Independence: 1650, expulsion of the Portuguese

Constitution: none

Legal system: based on English common law and Islamic law; ultimate appeal to the sultan; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Branches: executive--sultan, who appoints 45-member State Consultative Assembly to advise him; judicial--traditional Islamic judges and a nascent civil court system

National holiday: National Day, 18 November

Leader: @m5Chief of State and Head of Government Sultan and Prime Minister QABOOS bin Said Al Said (since 23 July 1970)

Suffrage: none

Elections: none

Political parties: none

Other political or pressure groups: outlawed Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman (PFLO), based in South Yemen; small, clandestine Shia fundamentalist groups are active

Member of: Arab League, FAO, G-77, GCC, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IDB--Islamic Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, ITU, NAM, OIC, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Awadh Bader AL-SHANFARI; Chancery at 2342 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 387-1980 through 1982; US--Ambassador G. Cranwell MONTGOMERY; Embassy at address NA, Muscat (mailing address is P. O. Box 966, Muscat); telephone 738-231 or 738-006

Flag: three horizontal bands of white (top, double width), red, and green (double width) with a broad, vertical, red band on the hoist side; the national emblem (a @m5khanjar dagger in its sheath superimposed on two crossed swords in scabbards) in white is centered at the top of the vertical band

NOTE: The information regarding Oman on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Oman Government 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Oman Government 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.