United States President Donald Trump has threatened longtime ally Oman with military force if it gets involved in the dispute over shipping access to the Strait of Hormuz, as Washington’s war on Iran once again risks engulfing the Middle East.
Trump’s threat on Wednesday to “blow up” Oman came as Muscat reportedly held talks with Iran about overseeing passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that handles more than 20 percent of the world’s global oil traffic. “Nobody is going to control it,” Trump said of the strait during a cabinet meeting in Washington. “It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”
But, while Hormuz is an international strait, most of it is located solely in Iranian and Omani territorial waters – not international waters – with parts of its outlying areas reaching United Arab Emirates (UAE) territorial waters. As a natural waterway that is the only route for Gulf oil producers to ship exports to the open ocean, the strait has served as a free international maritime route for decades. Following the US-Israeli joint attacks on Iran on February 28, however, Tehran closed the waterway and began to assert sovereignty over it, including charging tolls of as much as $2m per ship at times.
Under international maritime law, countries are not permitted to charge tolls to shipping passing through natural straits such as Hormuz, even where they are not in international waters. Countries can, however, provide services to shippers, such as insurance, maintenance and docking assistance. Shortly before Trump’s comment on Wednesday, Iran’s state television reported that Iran and the United States were close to agreeing on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which Tehran and Muscat would jointly control the strait. The proposal designates payments for passing vessels, framed as “fees for services” rather than “tolls”.
While the Trump administration has called the claims of such an MoU “a complete fabrication”, analysts say his threat suggests that an understanding between Iran and Oman is precisely what the US president is trying to avoid.
“What Washington wants to prevent is the normalisation of Iranian control over Hormuz, dressed in administrative and legal clothing and given Arab cover by a US ally,” Muhanad Seloom, non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
“Threatening a small ally is also a message to the whole Gulf: Do not give Iran cover.” When the US president replied by seemingly threatening to “blow up” the close ally, with which Washington has had relations for more than 200 years, there was initial speculation that he might have misspoken and said “Oman” instead of “Iran”.
However, the US Department of State later shared the comment on social media, with a transcript of the quote that referred to Oman, a country of 5.3 million people.
Oman has not publicly said anything suggesting it intends to join Iran in controlling the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday expressed solidarity with Oman, saying Iran stands in solidarity with Oman after “US officials’ threats”.
Critics called the threat reckless. Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director at the US-based rights group DAWN, likened the US president’s comments to those of a “mafia boss”.
“The UN Charter prohibits the threat of force against any state, and that prohibition binds the United States exactly as it binds everyone else,” Jarrar told Al Jazeera.
“Threatening to ‘blow up’ an Arab country because its waters happen to sit along an oil route Washington wants reopened is the same lawless logic that produced this war in February, and it is the clearest possible signal that any ceasefire this administration brokers will hold only until the next time the president loses his temper at a cabinet meeting.”
Source: Here
