President Trump put a US ally firmly in the hot seat this morning.

And as I researched this story, I was reminded that this wasn’t the first time this Mideast nation has been called out and threatened with attack!

The President said during a phone interview with Fox News’ foreign correspondent Trey Yingst that Oman could find itself in the crosshairs of the US military.

The point of conflict is (drum roll) the Strait of Hormuz, and Oman’s ongoing attempts at reaching an agreement apart from US involvement were the catalyst for the President’s anger.

Here’s a clip of Trey Yingst relating the President’s response when asked about the ongoing negotiations between Oman and Iran:

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The White House isn’t backing away from the comments reported by Yingst.

After Fox News reported the ‘bomb the s— out of them’ comments, the White House Rapid Response account on X shared the clip as well:

I’m pretty certain that being shared by the White House is the official government version of, “Yeah, I said what I said.”

Later in the morning, President Trump fielded a question during an Oval Office event on the threat he lobbed at Oman.

He again characterized Oman as behaving badly, and indicated he wouldn’t allow our ally to throw a wrench into efforts to stabilize the shipping in the Strait and his ability to reach a deal with Iran on American-based terms.

Here’s a clip of that moment caught by Fox News cameras sometime after the comments to Trey Yingst:

The President also emphasized to Yingst in the earlier phone interview that the Iranian leadership is in a tough spot, and that the upcoming Midterm elections here at home are not driving his decisions on Iran.

That, also, was reported by Fox News:

The 60-day ceasefire deadline is expiring Monday, but President Donald Trump’s resolve on ending Iran’s nuclear weapons aspirations is not, he told Fox News on Monday morning, where he confirmed there is a backchannel for peace talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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“They should put up the white flag of surrender,” Trump said in a phone interview, confirming reports of the IRGC backchannel talks that bypass mediators and Iranian political officials.

“They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” Trump said.

While speculation swirls Iran is engaging in its decades-long strategy of running out the political clock on Trump, before the midterms, if not 2028, Trump rejected the suggestion that politics is guiding his military strategy as commander in chief.

“Midterms have nothing to do with my thinking,” he told Yingst.

Trump also issued an extraordinary warning to Oman when asked about the Gulf nation’s role in talks involving Iran.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump said. (Emphasis added.)

As I said, this isn’t the first time Oman has taken unilateral steps with Iran that have drawn anger from President Trump.

Back in May, with Oman in the early stages of pushing an Oman/Iran joint plan to control the Strait of Hormuz, the President made essentially the same threat.

At that time, he specified that the US would be watching over the key shipping lane — long before the President started openly considering claiming the Strait as American territory.

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The Department of State X account shared that clip at the time:

Here’s a full screen version of that clip for easier viewing:

The nation of Oman sits south of Iran across the Strait of Hormuz, sharing a border with the UAE to the west.

But if you’ll check out the map I edited below, you can see the Musandam Peninsula that lies mostly on the UAE side of the border with Oman:

But there is a relatively small plot of land at the very tip of that peninsula that is considered a “protectorate” of Oman.

That puts sovereign Omani territory directly across the most narrow place in the Strait.

Iran is therefore attempting to edge out President Trump’s attempts to find a lasting security solution for the Strait by using Oman’s proximity to ground zero of the flashpoint.

Iran wants to reopen the Strait with tolls for shipping, and so far… Oman is sending signals that it’s on board with that — to be overseen by Iran and Oman, according to this from the New York Post:

Iran said last week that it was in talks with Oman about how to reopen the world’s busiest oil shipping channel, which has been the site of frequent conflict since the start of the war.

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The two nations came to an “understanding” on Monday as they hammer out the final stages of the agreement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement.

“This is a highly complex issue, and for the first time a mechanism is to be established that both safeguards the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the two coastal states (Iran and Oman) and ensures the safe passage of commercial vessels through this waterway,” he added.

Iran has maintained that the Strait of Hormuz will only be reopened with a new toll system imposed, which the US opposes.

Oman, a US ally, signaled at the end of June that it was open to a plan to collect “voluntary” fees from ships crossing the strait similar to the systems in place in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi claimed the fees were necessary to keep navigation in the waters safe.

Oman’s repeated willingness to collect fees in the Strait of Hormuz led Trump to issue his first threat against the country in May, warning that he would “blow up” the allied nation if it failed to “behave.”

The Islamic regime has used the strait, where nearly one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traverses, for leverage during the conflict – repeatedly causing gas prices to spike as November’s midterm elections approach. (Emphasis added.)

President Trump’s repeated warnings that he might use military force against Oman are seen by many as nothing but bluster.

And, maybe that’s what it is — negotiating bluster meant to send an emphatic signal.

The concerning part is that Oman does not appear to have received today’s signal, nor the memo sent out by the President back in May.

While Oman generally operates closely with the US in terms of political diplomacy in the region, this latest attempt by Iran’s southern neighbor has definitely caught the angry eye of President Trump.

Diplomats from both Iran and Oman are hinting that a deal between them on the Strait is close to being completed even today, as President Trump threatened a US attack on Oman.

I’m putting this squarely in the “developing story” category — and I’ll be watching it closely to bring you the latest as the situation plays out.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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