U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will help ink a major estimated $2.1 billion proposed deal with Oman to supply a U.S.-made air-defense system to the Gulf nation, officials said Tuesday.

One of the main focuses of Kerry's trip to Muscat was to applaud the signing of a letter of intent between Oman and U.S. manufacturer Raytheon ahead of talks on the final contract, they told reporters traveling with him to Oman.

A Turkish ship sank off Oman on Wednesday a day after an engine room fire and the evacuation of its 21-strong crew, Oman's transport ministry said.

The sultanate's official ONA news agency cited a ministry statement as saying that the Atlantik Confidence, flying the Liberian flag, sank at midday 144 nautical miles southeast of the island of Masirah, off the country's east coast.

Brett Holman's 85th-minute equalizer helped Australia save a 2-2 draw against Oman on Tuesday, and narrowly avoid a shocking upset in an Asian qualifier for the 2014 World Cup.

Holman's 25-yard strike capped a remarkable rally, after Australia had fallen 2-0 behind to Omani forward Abdul Mubarak's early strike and an own goal by Mile Jedinak just after half time.

Family members of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi who had taken refuge in Algeria during the revolution that toppled the long-time dictator have now moved to Oman, Libya's foreign minister said on Monday.

"Some of the family has moved to Oman," Mohammed Abdelaziz told reporters in Doha following reports that Gadhafi's relatives who fled to Algeria in August 2011 had now left that country.

Iran rejected Tuesday claims by the Gulf Cooperation Council that it is interfering in the grouping's internal affairs, insisting that Tehran stays away from domestic issues of other countries.

"Iran's intervention in Bahrain's affairs is a claim contrary to reality and it is made in order to escape from the real problems and will bear no results," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference.

Oil-rich UAE will channel $500 million this year into development projects in neighboring Oman as part of a $2.5 billion pledge within a Gulf aid program, a top Emirati official said on Wednesday.

"The UAE government will pump $0.5 billion this year through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development," said the fund's chief Mohammed al-Swaidi in Oman.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated on Thursday that Lebanon is keen on the best of relations with Arab countries and rejects meddling in their internal affairs.

During a meeting with a delegation of diplomats from Gulf Cooperation Council countries at the Grand Serail, Miqati stressed “the best of ties with the friendly Arab countries and mainly GCC states.”

A member of Oman's consultative council voiced concern Wednesday for the health of 30 jailed activists who have been on hunger strike for the past 12 days, as activists said some of them were in hospital.

"We are concerned, as are their families, about the deterioration of the health conditions of the detainees after 12 days on hunger strike," said Malek al-Abri, a member of Oman's elected Majlis al-Shura (consultative council).

Seventeen jailed Omani cyber activists have begun a hunger strike in protest against delays in their appeals, local media reported on Sunday.

The activists in Samayl central prison launched a hunger strike on Friday "to protest against what they claimed to be a delay in reviewing their appeal by the Supreme Court," Times of Oman quoted their lawyer Yaqoob al-Harthi as saying.

Voter turnout topped 50 percent in Oman's first ever local elections for 192 councilors with advisory powers, the sultanate's deputy interior minister announced on Sunday.

Turnout reached "50.3 percent of the electronically registered voters," Khaled Albusaidi said, quoted by the official ONA.