LOOSE CANNON“If He Had Not Misspoken, Perhaps He Did Not Really Mean What He Said”
Two weeks ago, referring to U.S. ally Oman, Trump warned that if Oman did not “behave just like everybody else,” the United States will “have to blow them up.” Perhaps, some Middle East observers wondered, he meant to say “Iran,” not “Oman.” Perhaps he did not really mean what he said.
One notable characteristic of President Donald Trump is his penchant for denigrating and threatening U.S. allies – from Canada and Mexico to Australia and Japan, and practically every Western European democracy in between. But threatening to “blow up” Oman, a staunch U.S. Gulf ally, in the middle of a war against Iran, may be a step too far.
Adrian Blomfield writes in The Telegraph:
Donald Trump has not done Britain many favors of late. But when he rounded on Oman late last month, threatening military action after claims that Muscat was helping Iran turn the Strait of Hormuz into a tollbooth, he may inadvertently have helped secure the future of Britain’s most important Arab relationship.
Quite why Mr. Trump would turn against a pivotal ally that has been a friend of the United States for nearly two centuries remains the subject of conjecture. Perhaps, some Middle East observers wondered, he meant to say Iran when he declared that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up.”
If he had not misspoken, perhaps he did not really mean what he said. Mr. Trump is prone to arbitrary outbursts, notes Sir Alan Duncan, the former government minister.
Even a US president with little time for diplomatic niceties is unlikely to attack a country known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, making the threat “ultimately pretty meaningless.”
