This is not the first time Trump has threatened Oman, a US ally which has never entered into any direct conflict with the US. Oman, through whose territorial waters the contested Strait of Hormuz also flows, has positioned itself as a neutral party in the US-Iran war. Despite that, it has suffered a number of strikes by Iran, which has targeted US military assets and infrastructure around the region in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n
Now, Trump is threatening to strike it as well.<\/p>\n
Here is more about what Trump has threatened, and why.<\/p>\n
What did Trump threaten Oman with?<\/p>\n
Trump told US broadcaster Fox News on Monday that Iran should surrender, and claimed that his administration had opened a direct backchannel for talks with Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n
During the interview, he threatened to bomb US ally Oman if it \u201cgets in the way\u201d of US talks with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Oman gets in the way, we\u2019ll bomb the s*** out of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
An IRGC spokesman denied Trump\u2019s claim of direct talks, telling Iran\u2019s semi-official\u00a0Tasnim News: \u201cThere are no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely fantasies caused by the delusions and nightmares he has suffered as a result of defeat and desperation in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Has he threatened Oman before?<\/p>\n
Monday was not the first time Trump threatened Oman over the course of the five-month war between the US and Iran. In May, he made a similar threat<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a cabinet meeting on May 27, a reporter asked Trump what he thought about the idea of Oman and Iran jointly overseeing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWould you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait?\u201d the reporter asked.<\/p>\n Trump replied with a seemingly offhand threat. \u201cNobody is going to control it. It\u2019s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.\u201d<\/p>\n While there was initial speculation that Trump might have misspoken and said \u201cOman\u201d instead of \u201cIran\u201d, the US State Department later shared<\/a>\u00a0the comment on social media, with a transcript of the quote that referred to the Arab country.<\/p>\n What is the context for all this?<\/p>\n For the past few weeks, Iran and Oman have been engaged in direct talks, facilitated by mediators in Qatar, to reach an agreement over how to manage maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in the future.<\/p>\n While Iran had agreed to keep the strait open to shipping without charge for 60 days following the signing of the MoU with the US on June 17, this quickly fell apart as the two sides disagreed over who had ultimate control over the strait \u2013 in particular which routes ships should take. Towards the end of June, Iran launched strikes on a number of ships which had followed an Oman-issued route, approved by the US, rather than its own route, and the US restarted strikes on Iran for nearly two weeks.<\/p>\n Following that, Iran refused to talk directly to the US, saying it had violated the terms of the MoU which included a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, and began talks with Oman over the future of the strait instead. Iran also issued a list of new demands<\/a> relating to the lifting of sanctions and a permanent end to US strikes before it would resume talks, it said.<\/p>\n On Monday, Tehran said the two countries have reached an agreement on a new shipping route in the strait and are now preparing a joint declaration.<\/p>\n Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the proposed mechanism for control of the strait seeks to protect the interests of both Iran and Oman while allowing commercial shipping to pass through.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time that a mechanism is being developed to simultaneously safeguard the sovereign rights of the two littoral states and ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels,\u201d said Baghaei.<\/p>\n The Strait of Hormuz is a critical waterway through which one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped before the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28. Roughly 130 ships sailed through the strait each day.<\/p>\n Iran closed the strait in early March, allowing only a few ships it deemed \u201cfriendly\u201d to pass through the strait until it signed the MoU with the US on June 17. Since then, it has become the key issue holding up talks for a lasting peace plan to end the war on Iran.<\/p>\n The US, meanwhile, has established its\u00a0own blockade<\/a> on Iranian ports in and around the strait. Last week, it fired on a Panama-flagged cargo vessel<\/a> it accused of attempting to reach Iranian ports and which, it said, had failed to follow orders to change course.<\/p>\n The crisis has triggered global energy shortages and the price of oil has soared. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, was about $66 a barrel just before the Middle East conflict began. Over the course of the war, the price has surged past $100 on several occasions, most recently<\/a> on July 23. In March, the price rose as high as $119.<\/p>\n Global benchmark Brent crude futures rose to $91.22 a barrel on Tuesday, inching close to a three-week high.<\/p>\n What is Oman\u2019s position on the Iran war?<\/p>\n Oman, which is known for its neutrality, has not publicly stated that it intends to join Iran in controlling the Strait of Hormuz. The US and Oman are close partners with a relationship stretching back nearly 200 years.<\/p>\n The two countries have multiple cooperation treaties, including security partnerships, a free trade agreement and a science and technology deal.<\/p>\n During the war, Iran launched multiple strikes<\/a> on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighbouring countries, including Oman.<\/p>\n Oman previously acted as a\u00a0key mediator<\/a>\u00a0between Washington and Tehran as they sought a resolution to the war that began on February 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.<\/p>\n So, why is Trump threatening Oman now?<\/p>\n A potential Iran-Oman understanding covering the Strait of Hormuz could cut against one of Washington\u2019s core demands: that Iran relinquish control of the strait as a condition of ending the war. Rather than curbing that control, such a deal would lend it greater legitimacy by formalising Iran\u2019s position.<\/p>\n But experts say Trump is also likely angry that the US has seemingly been cut out of the deal relating to the strait.<\/p>\n \u201cIn part, a solution mediated without US intervention and which in fact allows Oman and Iran to manage passage through Hormuz, which lies entirely within the two countries\u2019 territorial waters, would show how impotent the United States is and has been,\u201d Laleh Khalili, a professor of Gulf studies at the University of Exeter, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The US and Iran have also strongly disagreed about whether Iran should be allowed to charge fees to shipping companies using the strait. Under international law, tolls for passing through natural waterways such as Hormuz are forbidden, even when they are not technically in international waters. However, fees for services such as insurance, environmental protection and docking can be charged. It has yet to be seen whether this issue will be addressed in an Iran-Oman agreement.<\/p>\n In late July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned<\/a> that Iran should not be allowed to charge tolls on vessels traversing Hormuz. Days earlier, Trump himself pledged there would be no tolls<\/a> for passage through the strait, unless they are collected by his own country.<\/p>\n On August 14, Trump went a step further, telling his supporters<\/a> in New York that he had plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> a \u201cterritory\u201d of the US. \u201cAfter we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I\u2019ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, responded to that threat on social media with defiance.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump said that, after Iran\u2019s defeat, he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz as American territory,\u201d Gharibabadi wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Strait of Hormuz cannot be taken over by a tweet, nor by an aircraft carrier, nor by issuing a decree, nor by an election speech. Iran is neither afraid of threats nor intimidated by a show of force.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it \u201cgets in the way\u201d of a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1008642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[113,69,337,3097,1802,50,3345,32302,80,67,132,68,72,272944],"class_list":["post-1008641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-conflict","tag-donald-trump","tag-explainer","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-news","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-oman","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117116666559694210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/INTERACTIVE-Strait-of-Hormuz-March-2-2026-1772714221.png\")
<\/p>\n