“Yes, the U.S. is putting pressure on Israel to try to tone done – temper – their offensive strikes against Hezbollah,” Gregg Roman, who leads Middle East Forum, told the “Washington Watch” program on Tuesday.
Roman’s admission comes after President Trump has admitted to a profanity-filled phone call to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, because the IDF was pressing its military offensive against Hezbollah targets deep into Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which is Arabic for “Party of God,” formed in the 1980s to attack Israel with military and political support from Iran’s first ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini. It is supported today by Tehran and the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israel’s current military offensive in Lebanon began after Hezbollah attacked Israel in February, when the U.S. and Israel launched their joint military attack against Iran called “Operation Epic Fury” and “Operation Roaring Lion” respectively
Even though Hezbollah’s attack on Israel violated a ceasefire, inviting an IDF counterattack, that counterattack has complicated Trump’s repeated attempts to negotiate with Iran’s regime that is demanding the IDF withdraw from Lebanon.
Roman, whose organization is based in Tel Aviv, has personal knowledge of the Middle East after working in Israel’s government and the IDF.
That is perhaps why he was able to share news about Oman, Iran’s poorer southern neighbor, which is shaking up the Gulf region with plans to open up its portion of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial maritime traffic.
“It's the first time that we saw a Gulf Arab country deliberately buck the Iranian position, thereby squarely going into the U. S. camp,” Roman advised.
Oman’s portion of the Strait of Hormuz, a deep-water route, is naturally beneficial for large ships. So opening up that route means Iran can’t intimidate and attack ships moving through its own bottleneck territory in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think we may be seeing the [Iranian] blockade starting to crack,” Roman predicted.
A related story, published at The National Interest, describes the southern half of the Strait as a band of islands known as the Musandam Peninsula. That strip of land is Oman's sovereign territory, the story said, but Iran has military assets stationed all around it.
“Is peace on the horizon?” show host Tony Perkins asked.
“I think peace is on the horizon with other non-Abraham Accord countries right now,” Roman predicted. “Saudi Arabia might come into it. Oman might come into it.”
