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.
Three months later, that neutral stance is beginning to backfire. 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.
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.
The Omani Information Ministry declined to comment on U.S. pressure to sever links to Iran. “Oman stands ready to work with the United States and all responsible partners to promote stability, deter disruption, and safeguard our shared strategic interests,” the Information Minister Abdulla Al-Harrasi said.
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.
Oman’s approach to Tehran so far has “opened the door to criticism and unwelcome scrutiny of a country that has long prided itself on its impartial foreign policy,” said Sanam Vakil, a Middle East director at Chatham House, a U.K. think tank. The Trump administration’s threat “has highlighted perceptions in some American circles that Oman is sympathetic to Iran.”
Oman, which has acted as a mediator in previous rounds of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran, didn’t condemn Iran by name after attacks on traffic through the strait and missile and drone strikes across the region. A personal familiar with the matter said not doing so was in line with Omani diplomatic tradition.
When war broke out, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, told Omani media that the conflict was weakening the region and suggested Gulf Arab states reconsider their security ties with the U.S.
Iran for its part directed far less fire power toward Oman than its other neighbors during the war.
Omani territory was used to provide some logistical supplies to the U.S. military at the start of the war, say Arab and U.S. officials. But the U.S. official said the military assistance was small.
Asked to comment on its position regarding Oman, the White House referred to President Trump’s comments in last week’s cabinet meeting. Last Wednesday, Trump, in a seemingly offhand comment, said he might order airstrikes on Oman if it went along with Iran’s shipping-toll plan—even though Muscat has consistently denied any such intention.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also threatened the sultanate on social media with sanctions if it charged ships for passage through the strait. He told reporters the following day that Oman’s ambassador to Washington, Talal Alrahbi, had assured him the Gulf state has “no plans for tolling.”
Omani officials have been shocked by the sudden U.S. hostility and are working to figure out how to respond to it, Arab officials said.
One approach is the launch of a public-relations offensive to show it is actively pressing to support an increase in maritime traffic through the strait, they said. That includes working with the United Nations to persuade Iran to allow ships carrying ingredients for fertilizers to pass safely as a gesture to African nations facing a food crisis, said one official.
Since the war started, Oman has assisted ships, including from the U.S., by providing navigational guidance, search and rescue and medical assistance to ship crews, aid a person familiar with the matter.
Harrasi said the country remained committed to the free flow of commerce and energy through the strait. “Any threat to freedom of navigation in these waters would harm the interests of the entire international community, including the United States,” he said.
In May, Oman was the only Persian Gulf country that refused to sign an Emirati-led U.N. statement condemning Iran’s move to charge tolls in Hormuz.
Oman has had diplomatic ties with the U.S. for almost 200 years—one of the oldest relationships Washington has with an Arab nation. The sultanate also has centuries-old ties with the Iranians, who are mostly Shias. Unlike their Arab Sunni neighbors, Omanis belong to the Ibadite sect, an early secession from mainstream Islam known for its moderate and egalitarian tendencies.
Long regarded as a nation with whom Washington can talk, Oman hosted negotiations to end a war between Iran and Iraq and the 1980s, then facilitated back-channel communications between Tehran and the Obama administration that resulted in a 2015 pact to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Trump backed out of that deal during his first term.
More recently, Oman mediated two rounds of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, both interrupted by Israeli and American strikes on the Islamic Republic in June last year and at the start of the current conflict on Feb. 28.
U.S. officials said the genesis of the Trump administration’s distrust of Muscat came a day before the first U.S.-Israeli airstrikes when Oman’s foreign minister appeared on U.S. television to claim an agreement on nuclear issues to avoid a conflict was “within our reach, if we just allow diplomacy the space it needs to get there.”
No agreement was that close, the officials said, noting Iran hadn’t made a serious offer to limit its nuclear work.
Since then, the Trump administration has tried to sideline Oman in any diplomatic process, though there is no genuine plan to attack the country for its support of Iran, the U.S. officials said, despite Trump’s remark at last week’s cabinet meeting.
The U.S. criticism has laid bare Oman’s lack of access to American power circles. A smaller oil producer and less affluent country than most of its peers in the Persian Gulf, Muscat lacks the muscle inside the Beltway that comes with big business and military contracts. Oman, whose ports have been used as a military logistics hub by the Pentagon, doesn’t host a U.S. military base, unlike the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Oman’s engagement with Iran has ruffled feathers not just with the U.S. but with American allies in the region, notably the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, who also see their neighbor as too closely aligned with Iran.
Muscat has incensed the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia by systematically refusing to sign onto joint statements from the U.S. and regional countries condemning Iran’s attacks, Arab officials say. When Iranian drones hit Oman’s own ports, Oman acknowledged the event but didn’t call out Tehran as responsible.
Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said was the only Gulf leader to congratulate Mojtaba Khamenei for his appointment as Iran’s new supreme leader after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the opening salvos of the conflict.
The Omanis have argued its refusal to directly condemn Iran—including for the Hormuz blockade—is intended to help end the war for good, Arab officials say.
“In a volatile region, responsible leadership means keeping channels of communication open and preventing tensions from escalating into conflict,” said Harrasi, the Omani information minister.
Today, Oman isn’t directly criticizing Iran’s toll demand because Muscat sees it as just another negotiating tool, especially to secure the release of billions of dollars in funds frozen by U.S. and international sanctions, one of the officials said.
Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com, Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com
