US President Donald Trump threatened earlier this week to attack Oman if it interferes with US efforts within the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Oman will get in the best way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump mentioned in an interview with Fox Information on Monday, as Tehran mentioned that talks with Muscat over the very important waterway were ongoing.
Oman, a historic US ally, has tried to behave as a mediator between the US and Iran each earlier than and throughout the battle, notably hosting nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington earlier than the struggle broke out in February.
The day earlier than the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Omani International Minister Badr Albusaidi mentioned that Iran had agreed not to stockpile enriched uranium, which means it could by no means have sufficient materials to create a nuclear weapon if it reached a deal with the US.
The following day, after the US-Israeli strikes, Albusaidi mentioned he was “dismayed” that “energetic and severe negotiations” between the US and Iran had “yet again been undermined.”
In March, Albusaidi referred to as the struggle with Iran the Trump administration’s “greatest miscalculation.” Days later, he posted on X: “No matter your view of Iran, this struggle just isn’t of their making.”
Within the months since, Oman has labored with Iran to draft protocols for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
In Could, Trump threatened Oman for the first time, saying that the nation “will behave similar to everyone else, or we’ll need to blow ‘em up.”
Weeks later, a senior US administration official instructed reporters that Oman was “duplicitous” throughout negotiating efforts with Iran — so that they “threw them out” of the mediation position.
CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo, Nadeen Ebrahim, Mostafa Salem, Haley Britzky, Jennifer Hansler, Antoinette Radford, Jessie Yeung, Sarah El Sirgany, Billy Stockwell, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Aaron Blake contributed to this reporting.
