Friend Oman and Iran, A Twosome Alerting Trump To Be On Guard Over Strait of Hormuz

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

President Donald Trump threatened Oman—a long-standing U.S. ally in the Middle East—stating that the U.S. would use military force if the Gulf nation "gets in the way" of American positions regarding the Strait of Hormuz.   Oman's friendship with the United States officially began in 1833, when the two nations signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. This made Oman one of the very first Arab nations to formally recognize and build diplomatic ties with the United States.

Strait Control: Tensions rose as Oman engaged in discussions with Iran regarding shipping and security arrangements in the strategic waterway. 

Iranian leaders are claiming sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and seeking permanent control of maritime traffic through it. This demand marks a significant expansion of Iranian war aims beyond just survival and denying the United States and its partners the accomplishment of their own objectives. Iran is now positioning itself to emerge from the war in a stronger strategic position, with veto power over who can access one of the most critical maritime chokepoints in the world. This arrangement would severely undermine the US position in the Middle East and jeopardize the security of US allies and partners globally, including those in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.Washington and its friends—from Europe to the Indo-Pacific—have a vital interest in securing the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from holding hostage a critical artery of global trade. This reality holds regardless of how one feels about the war or the wisdom of launching it in the first place. The vital national interests of the United States and all its allies and partners, and of many neutral countries as well, require making securing full freedom of navigation through the strait a non-negotiable condition for ending the current war.

On Monday, as Iranian officials said they were close to announcing an agreement with Oman, a 60-day Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Washington and Tehran – which had provided for a period of peace talks but largely fell apart early on – expired with little hope for renewal.  This is not the first time Trump has threatened Oman, a US ally which has never entered into any direct conflict with the US.   Oman, through whose territorial waters the contested Strait of Hormuz also flows, has positioned itself as a neutral party in the US-Iran war. Despite that, it has suffered a number of strikes by Iran, which has targeted US military assets and infrastructure around the region in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks. As part of regional escalations and maritime disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian strikes and projectile attacks have targeted multiple ports, industrial zones, and commercial or military-linked infrastructure sites in Oman and its territorial waters.

U.S. Stance: The Trump administration insists the Strait of Hormuz must remain open international waters under broader U.S. oversight, rejecting joint regional management or fees. 

Diplomatic Fallout: The threats coincided with the expiration of a 60-day window for broader U.S.-Iran peace negotiations.

Now, The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday (Today) that two ballistic missiles launched from Iran triggered missile alerts across the country, with both ultimately landing in the water. The Emirati Defense Ministry said its air defense systems detected the two missiles after warning sirens were activated and residents received alerts on their mobile phones.

William N. Robinson

William N. Robinson is a political analyst who is evidently against Israel, researcher, and consultant specializing in security, governance and political economy. He works with a Horn of Africa‑based war and human rights monitoring organization and holds research fellowships with policy institutes in the Middle East and New Zealand. Find him on Twitter/X @wrobinsonnz. He writes that there is no peace unless there is a Palestine, not accepting  how Israel has struggled to have peace with its neighbors ever since the 1920's when Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was powerful and against the Jews creating Israel. The struggle includes the PLO with Arafat and now the October 7, 2023 slaughter of Jewish citizens done in the bloodiest manner possible for a human to do.  He must go along with the 1967 credo of wiping Israel's Jews into the Sea.  Any planning for a "Palestine" has been kyboshed. They signed a peace accord and still refuse to give up their arms, so they have broken that a well.  They are terrorists, never having the ability or right to have another country of their own.  They have attacking Israel continually; some neighbor they would make !!! They've bared their colors and they are not acceptable.  There was a time when Jews had wonderful plans for them as neighbors, but that has been buried for good now.   

"The treaties marked a departure from the 1967 Khartoum Resolution's "Three No's" paradigm—no peace, no recognition and no negotiations with Israel—as well as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which conditioned recognition on the establishment of a Palestinian state. In doing so, they deprived Palestinians of one of their few remaining sources of diplomatic leverage: the Arab consensus that Israel's regional integration must be contingent on ending its occupation of Palestine."  (Israel had the papers giving them the right to the land of Israel of which Britain gave away 75% of it to become Trans-Jordan, then just Jordan, so there is your Palestine, Mr. Robinson).  

Resource: by Brian Carter, Nicholas Carl-May 7, 2026; https://www.aei.org/commentary/iran-must-not-rule-the-strait-of-hormuz/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22312010316&gbraid=0AAAAADwVl0hrm6I2Jb9l2HQBhzVE8nPz4&gclid=CjwKCAjwhZDUBhBGEiwAbi5bjp1bof5nOETH_ebee4YQ992c98_kbUXRNiqO6X6n;  

May 07, 2026

 without a finalized agreement. 

Aleppo, Syria, City of Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

Aleppo is still a city of major importance in Syria.  It was called by the Jews who lived there, Aram-Zobah (Ps.60:2) and its Jewish community was one of the oldest in the world. The area was occupied by Amorites by the latter part of the third millennium BC. That is also the time at which Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, which speak of it as part of the Amorite state of Yamhad, and note its commercial and military importance. Such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia.For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and the Ottoman Empire's third-largest after Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Cairo. The city's significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, which passed through Central Asia and Mesopotamia.

        Aleppo, known for a business center

The Al-Hayyat  mosque was formerly a synagogue, dating from the 6th century.  Our very ancient researcher, Benjamin of Tudela, found 1,500 Jews living there in about 1170 CE, and later in the Middle Ages the community assumed some importance, being the home of many men of learning.   Spanish Jews settling there after 1492 (Columbus) reinvigorated the community. 

The Jewish community in Aleppo, Syria, played a foundational role in regional and international commerce, specializing heavily in textile manufacturing, silk, dyeing, and long-distance trade along historic caravan routes from the Ottoman era onward.

Before 1914's 1st World War, there were 14,000 Jews in Aleppo, but the number dwindled by emigration, mainly to America and England. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo lost its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, as well as the important Baghdad Railway connecting it to Mosul. After the U.N. decision of November 1947 to partition Palestine, anti-Jewish riots took place in Aleppo and many more Jews fled.  The community numbered only 400 by  1991.  It's main occupations were trade and peddling.  

The Jewish quarters contained many ancient synagogues, the oldest being the Mustaribah (destroyed in 1947 riots) the main part of which dated from the 4th century:  here a famous 10th century masoretic codex of the Bible, now in Israel, corrected by  Ben Asher, was formerly preserved.

 Aleppo serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the country's most populous governorate. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents as of 2021, it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and was the largest by population until it was surpassed by Damascus, the capital of Syria. Aleppo is also the largest city in Syria's northern governorates and one of the largest cities in the Levant region.

The battle of Aleppo occurred in the city during the Syrian civil war, and many parts of the city suffered massive destruction. It began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, which led to a series of defections, the emergence of armed opposition groups, and the civilian uprising descending into a civil war. The war lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

 Affected parts of the city are currently undergoing reconstruction. An estimated 31,000 people were killed in Aleppo during the conflict.

Aleppo recaptured; Russian/Iranian/Turkish-backed ceasefire (September 2016 – April 2017)

Territorial changes from September 2015 to December 2016.

Territorial changes from December 2016 to December 2017.

Territorial changes from December 2017 to March 2019.

Territorial changes from April 2019 to March 2020.

For a chronological guide, see September–December 2016 and January–April 2017 timeline.

Further information: Aleppo offensive (November–December 2016)

On 15 October 2016, a Russian seven-ship Northern Fleet task force composed of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy, two Udaloy-class destroyers, Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov and a number of supply ships left Severomorsk for the Eastern Mediterranean to support Syrian government forces battling rebel troops in Aleppo.  In 2016, the rebel troops in Aleppo belonged to an umbrella operations room called Fatah Halab (Conquest of Aleppo), alongside powerful Islamist factions like Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) and Ahrar al-Sham. These groups fought a fierce defense against the Syrian government and its international allies before losing control of eastern Aleppo in December 2016. 

As a matter of fact, WASHINGTON (AP) — The 13-year civil war in Syria has roared back into prominence with a surprise rebel offensive on Aleppo, one of Syria's largest cities and an ancient business hub. The push is among the rebels' strongest in years in a war whose destabilizing effects have rippled far beyond the country's borders.   Insurgents breach Syria's second-largest city Aleppo, fighters and a war monitor say  It was the first opposition attack on Aleppo since 2016, when a brutal air campaign by Russian warplanes helped Syrian President Bashar Assad retake the northwestern city. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah and other groups has allowed Assad to remain in power, within the 70 percent of Syria under his control.

The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when U.S.-backed Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists  in Gaza and Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, both Iranian-allied groups.

Position of Aleppo in 2026 today:  In January 2026, Aleppo came under the full control of the Syrian transitional government and army following a decisive military offensive that dismantled the remaining Kurdish-led SDF presence in the Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafieh districts. The city has since experienced relative calm, alongside ongoing humanitarian coordination and reconstruction efforts in the historic center.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi9lPQjfXIw&t=691s

 was formerly preserved.