Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the Shit’ Out of Oman as Strait of Hormuz Traffic Again Grinds to a Halt

Add another US ally to the list of formerly friendly nations Trump wants to bomb

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

Donald Trump threatened to bomb a US ally in the Middle East if it gets in the way of a perpetually elusive deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking with Fox News, Trump was asked about talks that Iran and Oman have been conducting about jointly overseeing operations of the strait, which has been shut down ever since Trump started an illegal war in late February.

Trump replied that “if Oman gets in the way” of reopening the strait, “we’ll bomb the shit out of them.”

It is unclear how effective Trump’s threats against Oman will be, as the US military still hasn’t forced Iran to reopen the strait even after burning through massive stocks of munitions—including what military sources have described to The Military Times as “virtually all” of its Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).

As Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft noted, the president previously threatened Oman when the country put forward proposals for a compromise on control of the strait.

Trump’s warning to Oman comes as the closure of the strait is once again putting upward pressure on petroleum prices.

According to a Monday report from Reuters, data from maritime vessel tracking firm Kpler shows that “shipping appeared to grind to a near standstill” over the weekend, as only “five commodity vessels transited the strait on Saturday, with none registered for Sunday.”

As Reuters noted, an average of 130 ships typically passed through the strait daily prior to the start of Trump’s illegal war.

The price of Brent crude jumped over $89 per barrel during Monday trading, while data released by the American Automobile Association shows the average price of gas in the US now stands at $4.06 per gallon, up from $4.01 in the week prior.

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that Iran believes that the war has been going so well that it has concocted a “secret plan” to escalate it, using the June ceasefire with the US to take time “to prepare for a bigger fight.”

“Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence... of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the US,” the Journal reported. “Their overriding goal is to inflict enough pain to ensure the kind of attacks Iran has endured with the 12-day war last year and the continuing conflict aren’t repeated.”