'Oman will behave or we'll blow them up': Trump threatens US’ longtime ally over support for Iran in Hormuz dispute

US President Donald Trump issued a direct military threat against Oman, a long-standing American ally in West Asia, warning that the US would “blow them up” if the country attempts to cooperate with Iran to assert control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The remarks were delivered during a White House Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, as the administration navigates fragile, high-stakes negotiations to end the three-month-old US-Israel war with Iran and reopen the blockaded shipping lane.

The controversy took place when a reporter asked President Trump if he would accept a short-term diplomatic framework allowing Iran and Oman to jointly manage trade and traffic through the strait.

“No, the strait is going to be open to everybody,” Trump responded flatly. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”

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While political analysts initially speculated that the president might have misspoken, intending to target Iran instead of Muscat, the US State Department later extinguished those doubts. The agency published an official video clip and transcript of the remarks on social media explicitly verifying the reference to Oman, with no corrections or walk-backs.

The threat marks a major shift in the US stance toward Oman, long seen as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran. The US and Oman share deep security ties, including a 1980 defence cooperation agreement allowing American forces access to Omani military bases, as well as a bilateral Free Trade Agreement signed in 2009.

The battle over waterway ’tolls’

The friction revolves around emerging reports regarding ...-war future of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point through which roughly 20 per cent of global oil supplies transit.

According to regional officials and intelligence leaks, Iran has been lobbying Oman, whose territorial waters border the strait alongside Iran’s, to support a newly proposed “Persian Gulf Strait Authority.” The authority would impose a maritime system to collect fees from commercial vessels passing through. While Oman initially resisted the proposal, recent reports indicate Muscat has been exploring the economic benefits of taking a share of the revenue.

The Trump administration has fiercely rejected any such arrangement. Under international maritime law, nations cannot legally charge simple “tolls” for passage through international straits.

“We want it free. We don’t want tolls,” Trump said earlier in the week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the same sentiment,
calling the proposal “unacceptable” and warning it would make a broader diplomatic peace deal unfeasible.

Stalemate in peace talks

The outbursts come amid
mounting frustration in Washington as negotiations for a permanent ceasefire appear to have hit a wall, just days after Trump claimed an agreement was “largely negotiated.”

During the roundtable, Trump accused Iran of intentionally stalling to “outwait” him ahead of the upcoming US midterm elections in November. He said that the US is not considering sanctions relief in exchange for Iran surrendering its highly enriched uranium stockpile.

“Iran is very much intent; they want very much to make a deal,” Trump told his Cabinet. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be. Either that, or we’ll have to just finish the job.”