Worshippers offer prayers over what are said to be remains of a figure not attested to in mainstream Islamic tradition as a prophet, but whose grave enjoys air-conditioned protection by the local authorities all the same.

It’s typical of the separate cultural identity that the Gulf Arab state of Oman jealously protects from its neighbour Saudi Arabia, whose puritanical Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam frowns upon such practices.

It also goes some way to explain why Oman, a former British protectorate of around 3.5 million people, has quietly aligned itself with natural gas power Qatar in Doha’s acrimonious split with Saudi Arabia over how to deal with rising power Iran.

Qatar broke Arab ranks, angering Riyadh, in January by hosting Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and leaders of Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas at a summit to support Hamas in its conflict with Israel.

Oman attended, just one example of small Gulf Arab states spoiling the united stance over Iran that Riyadh so craves. Qatar and Saudi leaders have sought to mend the rift but diplomats and analysts says the divide is as deep as ever.

Oman’s minister in charge of foreign affairs Youssef bin Alawi this week praised the chief of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shi’ite group in Lebanon that is the bete noire of Saudi Arabia.

“Hassan Nasrallah enjoys a high position,” he said in Tehran. “Iran’s and Oman’s position in regards to regional and global issues coincide.”

Shi’ite Muslim Iran has grown in stature since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 brought Shi’ites there to power and developed a nuclear energy programme that Western countries fear is a front for nuclear weapons.

Saudi Arabia fears Iran is one step away from official recognition from Washington as a regional leader, and the country that calls the shots in the Gulf.

That could embolden Saudi Arabia’s own Shi’ite minority, posing a challenge to the Al Saud family, absolute rulers who derive legitimacy from anti-Shi’ite clerics.

Yet Omani commentators plainly criticise fellow Gulf Arabs for clinging to the United States as their sole protector, a policy championed by Saudi Arabia for decades.

”When relations between America and Iran improve, as is expected, the Gulf countries will pay the price again,” Zaher al-Mahrouqi wrote in Omani daily al-Shabiba last week. “Iran has become stronger and is the only major player in the region.”  

Fear of wahhabism

A Western diplomat in Muscat said Oman, with a small Shi’ite population, was more concerned about Saudi influence on society than Iran. Wahhabi followers have made inroads in Yemen and in the southern Saudi Shi’ite region of Najran.

He cited an incident last year when Oman ordered Omanis not to follow the word from Saudi religious authorities on what day to celebrate the Eid at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Police reportedly clashed with Sunnis in Salala over the dispute. Oman follows the rulings of an Islamic sect known as Ibadism, which Saudi clerics view as heretical.

The incident showed that for Oman “Saudi religious influence must not be allowed to prevail,” the diplomat said. “Sunni Wahhabism can affect social cohesion, but Shi’ism doesn’t.

“A nuclear Iran is not desirable but they can live with it,” the diplomat said. He also pointed to Iran’s role in putting down a rebellion in the Dhofar region in the 1970s, ensuring the rule of Sultan Qaboos who remains in power to this day.

Oman and other small Gulf states short on natural gas are keen to import from major suppliers Iran and Qatar. Oman hopes Iran will supply Oman with gas by 2012 in a project to jointly develop Iran’s Kish field. Qatar is also a supplier to Oman.

“The present day realities of shared gasfield exploitation between Oman and Iran ... account for at least some of the softening,” said Christopher Davidson, a British historian.

Among the Gulf powers that rose in the 1960s and 1970s as British colonialism withdrew, Qatar has led the way in establishing close ties with Iran and veering from Riyadh, which sees itself as the Arab leader in the region.

Analysts say Oman moved close to Qatar after Doha’s current ruler took power in 1995. Qatar’s state telecom QTEL QTEL.QA owns Oman’s second mobile network Nawras.

Bahrain, where a Sunni family rules over a majority Shi’ite population, has stuck closest to Saudi Arabia. Like other small Gulf Arab states seeking allies to ensure survival, Oman offers military facilities to the United States.

“Oman plays the game of being distinct and different and this means it is conciliatory towards Iran and on the diplomatic and economic level,” said U.S. based analyst Simon Henderson.