Thanks for your response, Gibby. You don't think the earlier Omani real estate failures (I'm not familiar with them and so only know about them from what OMAG has discussed) and the embarrassment to govt officials those failures caused, is plausible to cause these delays?

Also, you don't believe the stories being told about how other western business interests have all reported similar and otherwise unexplainable delays?

If the Omani's wanted the whole project to themselves, why would they have signed on with Omagine Inc? If they had a change of heart, any thoughts as to why?

Lastly, why would any of us assume the Sultan himself would "sully" his position by getting involved in the nitty gritty? Just the fact that his RCA has signed on, I would think, would be enough for him. I'm assuming he has delegated all the details to RCA.

At any rate, I certainly agree with you that AT LEAST SOME DEGREE of scepticism is warranted, but I also see some very plausible explanations. You don't seem to think any of this is the least bit plausible.

For what it's worth, a good friend of mine (ex-military) once related an interesting war story that helped illustrate the Arab hesitancy to commit to anything. It was during one of the 2 Gulf Wars. American officers were either taking or handing over POWs from/to their Arab allies (I'm sorry, but I really forget the details, only remember the point). Any way, the Arab officer had to approve and stamp paperwork for each POW. He had an incredibly tough time bringing the stamp to each piece of paper and the whole process dragged on for hours for each transfer. My friend's point was that they are all afraid of making any kind of final decisions. His feeling was that it was a cultural thing. Kind of makes you wonder how all the Arabs were able to mount a coordinated attack on Israel during the Yom Kipur war of the early 1970s.

Anway (again), just a few thoughts and would be interested in any response.

Regards ... and glad you're not getting booted by Agoracom!