{"id":794,"date":"2026-05-30T08:37:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2026-05-30T08:37:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:37:51","slug":"how-double-dealing-oman-threatens-trumps-mideast-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=794","title":{"rendered":"How double-dealing Oman threatens Trump&#8217;s Mideast peace"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\u201cOman will behave just like everybody else, or we\u2019ll have to blow them up,\u201d President Donald Trump declared Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=792\">How many must die before NYC gets real on policing e-bikes?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>An apparently shocking statement about a nation long regarded as a key US ally.<\/p>\n<p>But as a tentative deal to end the war with Iran appears to be within reach, Washington has grown increasingly frustrated by the Gulf sultanate\u2019s quiet yet significant support for the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p>Located directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, Oman was once viewed as a trusted intermediary between the United States and the Tehran regime.<\/p>\n<p>Washington considers Muscat a strategic partner and maintains access to the sultanate\u2019s naval facilities; a longstanding US-Oman free trade agreement meant trade in US goods and services trade totaling $4.3 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>However, Oman is becoming a hub for Iranian sanctions evasion.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being struck by Iranian missiles and drones early in the war, Oman was the first government to congratulate the regime\u2019s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, on his appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian sources claim the Sultan of Oman recently signed a decree to expand trade and economic ties with Tehran, and suggested that banks in Muscat may even be firing managers who are reluctant to help facilitate that agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The United States is aware of Oman\u2019s support for Iran \u2014 but it hasn\u2019t yet moved to stop it, sending instead a set of letters warning of potential sanctions as part of the Treasury Department\u2019s \u201cOperation Economic Fury.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<iframe class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/29177821\/embed\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>And since then \u2014 in the absence of any sanctions targeting the banks that received warnings \u2014 Oman upped the ante.<\/p>\n<p>The sultanate reportedly began discussing with Iran a plan to jointly establish a permanent toll or tax system for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>This critical chokepoint is barely 21 miles at its narrowest point, with shipping lanes squeezed into a corridor just a few miles wide and split between Oman and Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran can\u2019t control the waterway alone \u2014 but neither can it and Oman be allowed to slap a price tag on one of the world\u2019s busiest maritime routes.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why, on Wednesday, Trump issued his blunt threat to Oman.<\/p>\n<p>Later that evening, the United States sanctioned Iran\u2019s newly formed Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which the regime set up to collect those tolls.<\/p>\n<p>And on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that \u201cOman, in particular, should know that the US Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved \u2014 directly or indirectly \u2014 in facilitating tolls for the Strait, and any willing partners will be penalized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bessent later said he had spoken with the Omani ambassador, who \u201cassured\u201d him that \u201cthere were no plans for tolling the strait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=790\">White House releases doctor\u2019s memo from Trump\u2019s visit to Walter Reed: \u2018Remains in excellent health\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Follow The Post\u2019s coverage on the latest in the war with Iran:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>China calls for Strait of Hormuz to reopen in meeting with Iran<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trump tells Post \u2018too soon\u2019 to prep for Iran peace deal signing as uranium enrichment remains sticking point<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>US, Iran \u2018getting close\u2019 to agreeing deal to end war after 67 days \u2014 what a potential pact would look like<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trump pauses \u2018Project Freedom\u2019 initiative in Strait of Hormuz \u2014 teases \u2018great progress\u2019 in Iran talks<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Still, Oman has neither publicly confirmed nor denied working with or supporting Iran\u2019s PGSA \u2014 and has not commented on Iran\u2019s suggested \u201cenvironmental tax\u201d scheme for Hormuz shipping.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, evidence is growing that Oman is welcoming Iranian smugglers and helping them get around the US blockade.<\/p>\n<p>Across social media, shipping accounts based in Iran advertise routes via ports in the \u00a0Musandam Peninsula at Oman\u2019s northern tip, posting videos of small cargo boats moving through the port of Khasab before crossing the Persian Gulf to Bandar Abbas in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>These boats are difficult to detect, but can carry anything from benign goods like produce and cigarettes to dual-use items like the electronic components Iran needs to rebuild and rearm.<\/p>\n<p>And Iranian banks sanctioned by the United States for financing terrorism \u2014 including Bank Melli and Bank Saderat \u2014 remain operational in Oman to this day.<\/p>\n<p>They help the regime move funds and bypass western sanctions, with the Omani government turning at least a blind eye.<\/p>\n<p>A year ago Iran\u2019s central bank governor even discussed the idea of establishing a joint bank with Oman to \u201cincrease banking and trade exchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While posing as a friend, Oman is acting like an enemy.<\/p>\n<p>But Trump doesn\u2019t need to bomb the country \u2014 at least not yet.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he should leverage America\u2019s vast sanctions toolkit to target Oman\u2019s financial system.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bessent should sanction the Omani banks already identified as supporting Iranian sanctions evasion.<\/p>\n<p>He should push the sultanate to shut down the informal money exchange houses, or <em>hawalas<\/em>, that swap Iranian rials into US dollars, and present Muscat with a pre-determined list of strategically significant financial targets that the United States commits to sanction should Oman keep supporting Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Oman\u2019s historical ties with the United States cannot excuse its support for the world\u2019s leading state sponsor of terrorism \u2014 and Trump doesn\u2019t need explosives to make that point.<\/p>\n<p>He just needs to show that \u201ceconomic fury\u201d is what\u2019s in store for both the terror regime in Tehran and all who facilitate its aggression.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies , where Max Meizlish is a research fellow in the Center on Economic and Financial Power.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=788\">Trump wants to give Kennedy Center to Congress after judge orders his name removed from building<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While posing as a friend to the US, Oman is acting like an enemy. But Trump doesn\u2019t need to bomb the country \u2014 at least not yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How double-dealing Oman threatens Trump&#039;s Mideast peace - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=794\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How double-dealing Oman threatens Trump&#039;s Mideast peace - Metro Transit Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While posing as a friend to the US, Oman is acting like an enemy. 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