President Donald Trump issued a military threat against Oman on Wednesday (May 27), warning the longtime American partner that it would face attack if it worked with Iran to assert joint control over the Strait of Hormuz, which has been a flashpoint at the heart of ongoing US–Iran war negotiations.
President Trump’s remarks came during a White House Cabinet meeting, when a reporter pressed Trump on an Iranian state media report suggesting Oman and Iran were in discussions to jointly manage shipping through the strategic waterway. “Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait?” the reporter asked.
Trump, in his sharp response, said, “The strait is going to be open to everybody. Nobody is going to control it…it’s international waters,” he said. “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” Trump added.
A Strategically Critical Waterway
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran militarised in retaliation for the US and Israel launching the war on February 28, has skyrocketed energy prices and disrupted trade in several commodities around the world. The waterway handles more than 20 percent of the world’s global oil traffic.
Iran has been pressing for the right to impose a toll on ships transiting the Strait as part of any deal to end the three-month-long war, and control of the passage, sections of which run through both Omani and Iranian territorial waters, has become a key sticking point in US–Iran negotiations.
An Awkward Target: A Historic U.S. Ally
The threat was directed at one of Washington’s most historically cooperative partners in the Gulf. Oman has for decades served as a quiet diplomatic back channel between the United States and Iran and has repeatedly hosted sensitive negotiations between the two powers.
On the eve of the US–Israeli attack on Iran, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi made a public plea on CBS News, asking for more time for diplomacy. In March, Albusaidi penned an opinion piece in The Economist warning that the US was risking its regional standing by continuing the war alongside Israel, writing, “America has lost control of its own foreign policy.”
Escalatory Pattern
Oman is now at least the 15th country Trump has either threatened to attack, left open the possibility of attacking, or actually attacked during his two terms as president, according to reports.
Nearly all of those instances have occurred in the first 16 months of his second term.
Peace Talks Under Strain
Iranian state TV reported this week that it had obtained an unofficial draft of a US–Iran agreement, which included terms under which Iran and Oman would jointly manage traffic through the strait.
The White House has, however, denied the claim through a post on X. “This report from Iranian-controlled media is not true, and the MOU they ‘released’ is a complete fabrication,” the White House Rapid Response team wrote on X. “Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. FACTS MATTER.”