U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman, a Middle Eastern ally that has played a mediating role between the United States and Iran, mixing in vicious profanity. Trump said he was targeting Oman because it was discussing joint management of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran. As he demanded Iran's complete surrender while also hinting at military strikes on neighboring allies, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are soaring to a peak.
On the 17th, according to a roundup of major media reports, Trump expressed strong anger toward Oman, which is discussing transit rights in the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, during a phone interview with Fox News and a gaggle with the White House press corps. When Fox News asked about the status of talks related to Oman, he warned with profanity, "If Oman interferes, we will bomb them mercilessly."
Oman is a key ally that has maintained a long-standing military cooperation relationship with the United States. Recently, it has led back-channel talks with Iran and sought its own plan to manage the strait. The Trump administration was said to have harbored strong dissatisfaction, arguing that Oman was using its role as a neutral mediator as a pretext to carry out hostile acts against U.S. interests.
Trump even raised the idea of incorporating the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil shipments, entirely into U.S. territory. He said, "We are controlling it through a blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it our territory," adding, "We could do that." The U.S. military has rapidly tightened control of the strait, including firing on a Panama-flagged merchant ship that tried to break through a U.S. blockade line to reach an Iranian port. Experts said that if such a unilateral territorial declaration became reality under these circumstances, it would likely cause serious friction not only with Middle Eastern littoral states but with the global shipping industry as a whole.
Trump then officially confirmed that the cease-fire period between Iran and the United States, which had continued for 60 days as of that day, had completely ended. Trump said, "Iran must raise the white flag, which means surrender," making it clear he had no intention of re-signing or extending a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end the war with Iran. With the June cease-fire agreement between the United States and Iran officially collapsing, the two countries again faced a crisis of military conflict in which they could not see even an inch ahead.
Foreign policy experts said Trump's remarks reflected fatigue and frustration with a protracted military operation against Iran. The New York Times (NYT) analyzed that, with the cease-fire agreement with Iran collapsing, Trump showed frustration at his inability to resolve an unwinnable war. In the U.S. Senate, political moves to rein in the Trump administration's go-it-alone approach are becoming clearer, with Sen. Tim Kaine, a moderate Democrat, signaling a resolution that would categorically ban military action targeting Oman.