U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a startling threat against Oman, a longstanding American ally in the Gulf, warning he would bomb the country if it interfered with U.S. efforts to control the outcome of the Iran war and the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
In a phone interview with Fox News on August 17, 2026, Trump said that if Oman “gets in the way,” the U.S. would bomb the country. He made the comment while discussing ongoing, parallel negotiations over who controls navigation through the Strait of Hormuz (discussions that include both Oman and Iran) as well as separate U.S.-led diplomacy with Tehran.
Trump also called on Iran to surrender and reiterated that he is under no time pressure to put this conflict to an end, suggesting Iran’s negotiators are skilled but ultimately losing ground.
The remarks come against the backdrop of a month long conflict between the U.S. and Iran that started following a U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran in late February 2026. Since then, the Strait of Hormuz has become the center point of the battleground.
Both countries agreed to a ceasefire but the framework ultimately collapsed after a wave of attacks on commercial vessels transiting the strait, and a 60-day memorandum between Washington and Tehran was also set to expire the same day as Trump made the comments.
Resultantly, shipping traffic has cratered, with only a limited number of vessels passing through the strait over the weekend. Additionally, strikes on tankers operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company last week further rattled shipping activity, and the U.S. has signaled it may maintain its naval blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely.
Oman holds a significant position in this equation as it sits on the opposite shore of the strait from Iran. It has also reportedly been negotiating directly with Iran over a separate arrangement described by Iranian officials as an agreed shipping channel through the waterway. Iran’s govt has said any such route still can’t guarantee safe passage while the U.S. blockade remains in place, and has insisted the strait will only open on Iran’s terms and conditions.
Therefore, the Oman-Iran talks running alongside U.S.-Iran talks appear to have provoked Trump’s warning. He seems wary that an Oman-brokered arrangement can undercut U.S. leverage or contradict its stated goal of blocking any Iranian access to a nuclear weapon, which Trump repeatedly called his top priority in the conflict.
2026-08-17 18:05:00
