The 1970 Omani coup d'état was the overthrow of Sultan of Oman Said bin Taimur by his son Qaboos bin Said in Oman on 23 July 1970. Occurring in the midst of the Dhofar Rebellion, the palace coup was executed with the support of the British and saw Sultan Said bin Taimur deposed and sent into exile to the United Kingdom. The coup was a pivotal moment in modern Omani history as Qaboos swiftly set in motion numerous wide-ranging modernization reforms in the kingdom, transforming Oman from an underdeveloped backwater into a country on par with many Western nations in terms of political stability and economic development. At the time of his death in January 2020, Sultan Qaboos was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East.
Background
Beginning at the end of the 19th century, Oman gradually came under the influence of the British Empire through a series of treaties and diplomatic arrangements. Eventually, the Omani Sultan became increasingly reliant on Britain for support and advice. The Sultanate's primary sources of revenue, notably the slave trade and arms dealing, were prohibited by the British, resulting in confrontations between the Omani authorities and tribesmen in the country's interior. These confrontations led to Oman seeking military support from the British who agreed to defend Sultan Faisal bin Turki from attempts at overthrowing him.
In 1913, Sultan Taimur bin Feisal took the reins of Oman and brought back the kingdom to a more stable financial footing and quelled tribal unrest in the country. He ruled until his abdication in 1932 at which point his eldest son, Said bin Taimur, took over as Sultan.
Under Sultan Said bin Taimur's rule, Oman became increasingly isolationist and underdeveloped. Internal unrest flourished such as in the case of the Jebel Akhdar War and Dhofar Rebellion. Sultan bin Taimur became increasingly reliant on the British to maintain control in his own country, which he refused to rule in a modern manner, at one point refusing to even leave his palace after an assassination attempt. The Dhofar Rebellion was a communist insurgency launched in 1963 and had gripped the country since then, pitting British-led Omani troops against the insurgents primarily in the southern part of the country. The Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF) were under de facto British command. British Colonel Hugh Oldman commanded the Sultan's troops in Muscat, while Brigadier John Graham was the overall commander of the SAF. By 1970, all of the country's only major source of revenue, petrodollars, was either going to fighting insurgents or directly into the sultan's coffers. Sultan bin Taimur's poor leadership of the country and overreliance on British military support aggravated the British government, who began to view Taimur's deposition as the only viable way to defeating Oman's growing communist insurgency. British officials contacted the Sultan's 29-year-old son and graduate of Sandhurst, Qaboos bin Said al Said, who was under house arrest per his father's orders, by placing voice messages in musical cassette tapes and informed him of the plan the government was concocting to topple his father. Qaboos agreed and the operation proceeded.
Coup
On 23 July 1970, British-led military units were being put into position to topple the Sultan. Graham convened the top Arab commanders of the Desert Regiment, the main Omani unit that would carry out the coup, and informed them of the letter sent to them by Qaboos which "commanded" the British officers to carry out the coup. The meeting secured their loyalty and cooperation.