Washington (United States) (AFP) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to threaten to attack US ally Oman if it sides with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said Oman must “behave” or he would “blow them up,” when he was asked if he would accept a short-term deal to allow Iran and the Gulf state to control the waterway.
“No, the strait is going to be open to everybody,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House.
“It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”
The White House did not immediately respond when asked by AFP if Trump had misspoken and had intended to refer to Iran rather than Oman.
Oman is a key US ally which has tried to mediate the Middle East war and has itself come under attack from Tehran.
The US State Department later posted a clip and transcript of Trump’s comments about Oman, without any correction or clarification.
The 79-year-old did earlier appear to mix up Iran and Venezuela, saying that the South American nation – whose leader Nicolas Maduro was toppled by US forces in January – “no longer has a navy, no longer has an air force.”
Trump has repeatedly used such phrasing to refer to Iran, which the US and Israel attacked on February 28.
Iran has indicated that it seeks to impose a new reality in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, exacting tolls on transiting ships and sharing the revenues with Oman.
Trump has grown increasingly frustrated as talks to end the Middle East war and reopen the strait appear to have stalled once more, just days after he said a deal was near.
I’m pretty sure Saudi Arabia will send a sternly worded letter to Trump in that case.
Will this take precedence over annexing Cuba or will it be at the same time?
Cuba must get in line behind Greenland I believe. Lucky the US has apparently unlimited resources and totally hasn’t spent more than half its munitions already.
Well clearly he’d want to get Canada first so even Greenland must be patient… /s
Something necessary to understand is that Trump is the kind of coward who fumbles a situation so badly he has no choice but to admit defeat and he is actually in my opinion literally incapable of admitting he is wrong so he ends up escalating because he is too cowardly to do anything else.
In other words, when Trump says things like this take him seriously. Just because he probably won’t do it doesn’t mean he isn’t serious, rather it means he is incompetent and incapable of sticking to a plan long enough to make it actually work without cheating.
Trump and Stephen Miller would absolutely drop a nuclear bomb on Oman for the dumbest reason you can imagine, it just is unlikely that they will but that nuance is dangerously lost in acidic coverage of Trump and his cult. Trump is more dangerous because he is a cowadd not less.
This is why cowardly men are so dangerous, they escalate because they are too terrified to be vulnerable and it should terrify us all that a man lile that is in charge of the US and that an entire political party is too grovelling to even say a peep bad about him.
What should really terrify the people of the world is that 37% of Americans still approve of Trump’s job performance. That is a minority, but no small number. Nobody is stopping him.
This is America. It’s just really obvious now.
I don’t know how trustworthy those numbers are, anymore…
I think back to 3000 years ago when Trump was asked what he would ask God forgiveness for, and he could not think of a single thing:
https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2016/user-clip-have-you-ever-asked-god-for-forgiveness/4619501
You know im shocked that this admin hasn’t decided to create a new waterway nearby with nukes yet. Like this timeline is such a joke I expect it now.
Tr*mp Canal
FACT CHECK: None of the Strait of Hormuz is considered “international waters”. The strait lies entirely within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, meaning both coastal states hold sovereignty over these waters.
This would be like China trying to militarily control Puget Sound / Strait of Juan de Fuca, because they need Starbucks.
UNCLOS covers FONAS of straits.
Otherwise Denmark and Norway would be able to block all the Baltic states including Russia from exiting into the North sea.
International waters are often confused with international straits. The strait of Hormuz is considered an international strait (but not international waters). In international straits, international shipping can by international law not be closed off to neutral nations, ships must be allowed to pass through. So Iran can block Israeli and US ships (and possibly UK/gulf state ships if they participate in the war), but e.g. a Peruvian or Chinese or Thai vessel should be allowed to pass.
Appears?
