The United States has pressed Oman to pick a side and cut diplomatic ties with Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal.
At the start of the U.S.-Iran war, officials in Oman raced to establish a back channel with Tehran that, according to Arab officials, helped Gulf states reopen flight corridors—a diplomatic coup made possible by Muscat’s staunch impartiality in the conflict.
"Washington increasingly interprets Oman’s approach toward Tehran as hostile to America and, according to U.S. and Arab officials, has pressed Oman to pick a side and cut diplomatic ties with Iran," the report reads.
In recent days, the Trump administration has threatened to sanction and even bomb Oman, after a new intelligence assessment concluded that Muscat was planning to join Iran in tolling vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to another U.S. official. Oman has repeatedly denied that it plans to do so.
Since then, the Trump administration has tried to sideline Oman in any diplomatic process, though there is no genuine plan to attack the country," the report reads.
Throughout the war, the sultanate has walked a line between the U.S., its longtime ally, and Iran, its powerful neighbor across the strait - a strategy designed to make a lasting peace more likely, according to two of the Arab officials.
But Oman is losing its footing as an Arab nation with whom both sides feel they can do business. If it sides with the U.S., Oman risks the kind of attacks inflicted by Iran on its Gulf neighbors during the conflict.
