Trump threatens to bomb Oman over its Iran deal on Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump warned that the United States would “blow them up” if Oman attempted to broker its own arrangement with Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz. The threat, directed at one of Washington’s most reliable partners in the Middle East, marks a dramatic escalation in an already volatile regional standoff.

The statement came during cabinet discussions on May 27, as US-Iran negotiations continued to stall and Oman quietly advanced its own diplomatic track with Tehran. “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” Trump said, framing the sultanate’s independent diplomacy as interference rather than mediation.

A mediator caught in the crossfire

Oman has spent decades cultivating a reputation as the Gulf’s honest broker. The sultanate facilitated the secret back-channel talks that eventually led to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and it has consistently maintained diplomatic ties with Tehran even as its Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors severed theirs.

The Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply typically flows, has been largely inaccessible since early 2026. The closure stems from the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began earlier in the year.

Oman shares the strait with Iran. The two countries sit on opposite sides of the narrow waterway, making any arrangement to reopen it a bilateral concern by geography alone.

Gulf allies have reportedly pressured the sultanate over what they view as excessive leniency toward Iran, and Trump’s public threat suggests Washington shares that frustration.

The Strait of Hormuz stalemate

By August 2026, Iran and Oman had reportedly entered the final stages of drafting an agreement on access to the strait. The details of the proposed arrangement remain unclear, but the basic framework involves some form of temporary operational understanding between the two nations that share its coastline.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that discussions between Iran and Oman had made progress. As of August 5, however, Rubio confirmed that no final agreement had been reached.

The US position appears to be that any arrangement for the strait must run through Washington, not around it. From the administration’s perspective, allowing Iran and Oman to negotiate bilateral control of the waterway would undermine American leverage in the broader US-Iran talks, which have yet to produce a conclusive deal.

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