WASHINGTON—The White House for weeks promised that Iran was close to signing a nuclear deal and that Oman could be helpful in reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The tiny Gulf nation suddenly found itself at the center of the effort to end the war.
This deal, however, has proved elusive. And President Trump’s frustration with this standoff prompted him to threaten to bomb Oman on Monday, as he alleged the country might be standing in the way of an agreement.
WASHINGTON—The White House for weeks promised that Iran was close to signing a nuclear deal and that Oman could be helpful in reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The tiny Gulf nation suddenly found itself at the center of the effort to end the war.
This deal, however, has proved elusive. And President Trump’s frustration with this standoff prompted him to threaten to bomb Oman on Monday, as he alleged the country might be standing in the way of an agreement.
“I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily just like we do others,” Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office. He didn’t go into specifics about what Omani officials did that drew his ire.
U.S. officials said the Oman picture was murky. The Gulf country that borders the Strait of Hormuz to the south is in talks with Iran to allow more commercial traffic in the waterway. U.S. officials said those negotiations were progressing and could relieve pressure on the global energy market and higher domestic gas prices. But there is lingering concern within the administration that Oman could aid Iran in brokering a nuclear deal more favorable to Tehran, feeding Trump’s anger.
Oman is just the latest country to draw Trump’s anger for not—in his view—doing more to help end the Iran conflict he started alongside Israel. On Sunday, he ordered a cut to a joint U.S.-South Korea military drill because Seoul wouldn’t help pry open the Strait of Hormuz.
“Would you like to give us a little hand,” Trump said, recounting a conversation he said he had with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung before stressing that the U.S. didn’t actually need any help. “He said, ‘no thanks,’” Trump added. “And I said, ‘Wait a minute: We have 39,000 soldiers over there, guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That’s strange.’”
Trump has also complained that European allies such as the U.K. and Spain haven’t done enough to counter Iran, an extension of his decadeslong gripe that allies take more from the U.S. than they give.
A debate has raged within the administration about how to handle Oman.
Some senior aides privately accuse Oman of being a duplicitous actor that largely sides with Iran instead of seeking the best possible deal between Washington and Tehran, officials said. Others say Oman’s longstanding ties to Iran are a boon to the mediation process. Those officials assert that Trump is scapegoating Oman as he seeks others to blame for struggling to complete a nuclear deal.
There is also concern the Iran-Oman deal could solidify Tehran’s control over the strait, U.S. officials said, noting Trump prefers an agreement that fully reopens the passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and energy flowed before the war.
Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East issues at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Iran was pressuring Oman into the joint plan so it has the patina of a legitimate cross-strait project. “Trump’s threats only embolden the Iranians who sense further weakness,” said Cook. “Instead of being totally open, the strait is mostly closed.”
The embassy of Oman in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Trump in June set a 60-day deadline to end the war with Iran and push Tehran to give up its nuclear program. That deadline expired on Monday with neither side giving ground, leaving an unclear path to ending the conflict. The U.S. has relied on Qatar and Pakistan as mediators to try to bring about an end to the war while it pushed Oman, the initial mediator, to the side.
Trump has told aides that he would consider declaring Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon blocked and the war won if Tehran agreed to fully open the waterway, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported.
Relations between the U.S. and Oman have deteriorated in recent months.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who played a role in mediating U.S.-Iran talks before the war, repeatedly criticized the U.S. decision to launch the war, even appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” to try to prevent the first wave of attacks.
“Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making,” he said in a social-media post in March.
The Trump administration previously threatened to sanction and even launch strikes against Oman after intelligence assessments concluded that the Persian Gulf country planned to impose tolls on vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz with Iran in a bid to see the strait reopened. Oman repeatedly denied these assessments.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that Iran’s tolling the Strait of Hormuz would be a red line for the Trump administration and set a dangerous precedent for other strategic international waterways around the world.
Write to Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com and Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com
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