Trump threatens to bomb Oman, the U.S. ally brokering the deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Trump made the threat in a Fox interview on Monday, Aug. 17, while his administration bargained with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz (the sea passage between Oman and Iran that Gulf oil tankers must use to reach open water). "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--- out of them," he said. Oman has been running its own talks with Tehran on a provisional arrangement to manage traffic through the strait. U.S. forces are currently blockading Iranian ships there, and Trump said American forces could strike Oman if it interferes with that blockade. Oman is a treaty-level security partner that hosts U.S. aircraft and warships. A day earlier (Sunday, Aug. 16), Trump issued fresh orders to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the pressure campaign against Iran and publicly turned on South Korea, another ally.

What the U.S. would lose by bombing Oman — the basing deal, the sea lanes, and the broker:

• A 1980 facilities agreement, last revised and renewed in 2010, lets U.S. aircraft use Oman's Thumrait and Masirah Island airfields; a separate Strategic Framework Agreement signed in March 2019 expanded U.S. access to the ports of Duqm and Salalah.
• The strait narrows to about 21 miles between Oman's Musandam peninsula and the Iranian coast, and the inbound and outbound shipping lanes are only two miles wide each, which is why a handful of warships can choke the whole waterway.
• Sultan Haitham bin Tariq (Sultan, Oman), who took power in January 2020, has kept his country out of the Abraham Accords and out of the Saudi-led war in Yemen. That neutrality is exactly what makes Muscat useful to both sides.
• A U.S.–Oman free trade agreement has been in force since Jan. 1, 2009, one of four the United States holds with Arab countries, alongside Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain.