The President of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened this morning to bomb Oman, a traditional ally, if it “interferes” in the talks with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president issued the warning during an interview with Fox News, on the same day that the ceasefire signed two months ago with Iran expired, under which both countries gave themselves 60 days to seek a definitive end to the war.
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This is the second time Trump has directed such a threat against Muscat, one of the mediating capitals in the current conflict, which has already lasted half a year. In May, the president was upset when it became known that Oman was discussing with Iran the possibility of partnering to collect tolls in Hormuz, a crucial bottleneck through which before the war passed a fifth of the world’s crude oil. “Oman will behave like everyone else or we will have to blow them up,” the president said then.
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What has provoked his fury on this second occasion is the information that Tehran and Muscat were negotiating a new plan for the joint reopening of Hormuz. Shortly after Trump’s threat, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghaei, announced that “an understanding has been reached on the transit route map,” referring to the critical strait.
Although details about the agreement have not yet emerged, some reports in the past week pointed to a pact that would allow reopening Hormuz in such a way that ships would enter via a route close to Iran and exit through another near Oman. In an initial and provisional phase, ships would circulate without paying fees or tolls, which could be imposed later.
Trump, who has been trying for weeks to find a dignified way out of this unpopular war – which has lasted five months longer than initially forecast – has among his main objectives the reopening of Hormuz, but on his own terms. Last week, he repeatedly insisted on the idea that Washington already “controls” the strait, although Iran has not ceased its attacks in recent weeks against ships trying to cross it.
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Iran announces it has reached an “understanding” with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
In the memorandum of understanding signed in June by the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and Trump, who signed the document publicly from the Palace of Versailles, both parties committed to cease their attacks, lift their respective naval blockades in the region, and negotiate the limitation of the Iranian nuclear program while Washington progressively lifted its sanctions on the regime. But the differing interpretations of what was signed frustrated the ceasefire, so bombings in Iranian territory and against US bases in the region resumed immediately.
The failure of the truce, embodied in an already expired document, raises uncertainty about the future of the war. While Trump seeks to end it, now that there are two and a half months left until the midterm elections, Tehran has publicly said it is willing to “accompany” the president, maintaining the war, until the next presidential elections in 2028.
“The number one goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, under any circumstances, a nuclear weapon,” Trump insisted this Monday through his platform, Truth Social. However, Baghaei stated that negotiations on the nuclear agreement “never began,” as in recent weeks they have focused on how the Strait of Hormuz can be reopened.
With the battlefield and diplomatic front stalled, the two countries have entered a war of attrition strategy, economic in the case of the US against Iran, and political in the case of Tehran. For this, Trump has revoked the exemptions from sanctions on Iranian oil that he had granted as part of the memorandum signed two months ago and has reinstated the naval blockade on Iranian ports. But Iran interprets that it can endure greater suffering than Trump, whose electoral aspirations may be frustrated by the blockade in Hormuz, which is strangling global energy markets.
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