The US has been pressuring Oman to pick a side in its war against Iran and to sever ties with Tehran, despite Muscat’s history of acting as a neutral mediator in the region, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Sources told the Journal that at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, Oman’s neutrality allowed it to open a backchannel with Iran that allowed Gulf states to reopen flight corridors, but that now, Washington views Muscat’s neutrality as being hostile toward the US.
President Trump recently threatened to “blow up” Oman if the country didn’t “behave,” comments he made when asked if the US would accept a short-term deal that involved Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Strait of Hormuz. His threat was followed by a threat of sanctions from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said that Oman would be “aggressively” targeted if it “facilitated” a tolling system for the strait.
The Journal report said the threats followed a US intelligence assessment that concluded Oman was planning to join Iran in implementing a new tolling system for the Strait of Hormuz. While Iranian officials have said they held talks with their Omani counterparts about such a system, Oman has denied any plans to participate.
Oman has brokered negotiations between the US and Iran in the lead-up to the war, and on the eve of the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi traveled to the US for talks with Vice President JD Vance and said in an interview on CBS News that a deal was “within our reach, if we just allow diplomacy the space it needs to get there.” The Journal report said that since Albusaidi’s comments about a potential deal, the US has tried to sideline Oman in any diplomatic process.
