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Donald Trump has threatened to launch an attack on Oman – a Middle East ally – over control of the Strait of Hormuz, which remains largely blocked amid the ongoing conflict between Washington and Iran.
A 60-day period to negotiate a ceasefire deal expired on Monday with no news of an extension and talks deadlocked in the same position as two months ago.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News, after reports Oman and Iran are working out their own solution to control the strategic waterway.
Trump told the outlet that the US had a backchannel with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, adding: “They should put up the white flag of surrender.”
Tehran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalise details for a joint statement.
When asked later in the Oval Office if he was out of patience with Oman, Trump told reporters: "No, I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things."
The IRGC hit back at the comments saying they were “fantasies resulting from delusions and nightmares of defeat and desperation in the war” and accused Trump of trying to “control the price of oil and energy”.
Later on Monday said that Iran would not make the deal he thinks is needed to end the war and should surrender as talks between the countries remained stalled.
"They're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. Look, we're in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Asked whether the US was seeking to extend an interim deal with Iran, Trump said "no."
Iran and the United States had been due to to reach a final deal by Monday, under a memorandum of understanding agreed in June aimed at ending the war.
That interim agreement, which declared the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts”, quickly unravelled, however, due to a dispute over control of the Strait. The Iranian regime said the memorandum gave it the right to manage vital shipping route while Washington rejected that interpretation.
Tehran insisted there had been “no provision” for a deadline in the agreement with the US and that Iran “never formulates it policies under pressure, ultimatums or time limits”. It added that “gross and widespread US violations” made the previously agreed memorandum irrelevant.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon “in any way, shape or form” in a post on Truth Social, adding it is “the number one goal” and “always will be”.
Tehran has warned it will escalate tensions in Hormuz and the wider region if diplomacy fails, a senior Iranian official said. They highlighted that this would mark a significant shift from defense to offense.
“Iran will not wait for the U.S. to continue its blockade indefinitely,” they told Reuters, referring to U.S. Navy efforts to prevent ships leaving or arriving in Iran.
Iran’s foreign minister spokesperson Esmail Baghaei added that while talks with Oman were continuing they were taking a long time due to the complexity of the issues and “malicious parties”.
Oman has played a key role in working towards a peace deal and has endured Iranian retaliatory attacks since the war began at the end of February.
It has been a key US ally in the region and maintained defense cooperation agreements for decades, which allow American forces access to Omani ports and air bases that are vital for operations in the region.
When Trump made previous threats against Oman in May during a cabinet meeting at the White House, he said: “Oman will behave just like everyone else, or we'll have to blow them up.”
At the time he reiterated that Oman and other nations should become signatories to the Abraham Accords, a U.S.-led treaty brokered during his first term encouraging the normalization of diplomatic ties between Arab nations and Israel.
US envoy and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner touched down in Israel on Monday to meet with Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu and former British prime minister Tony Blair to try and save the president’s 15-point peace plan for Gaza.
Trump said Hamas had agreed to “complete disarmament” at the end of July but there appears to have been little progress in reaching that goal since then.
Netanyahu publicly rejected the roadmap earlier this month despite Trump saying that his Board of Peace had reached a final agreement to end the crisis.
Kushner attempted to push Netanyahu to accept Trump’s plan, sources told CNN, but he is said to have resisted on the basis it would prove “problematic” with forthcoming elections.
An Israeli official later confirmed there was no breakthrough in the meeting, saying Netanyahu had made it clear the military would not withdraw from a demarcation line set out in an October ceasefire and would continue to carry out operations in Gaza as it sees necessary.
In a statement that described the hours-long summit as “deep and constructive”, the prime minister's office said Israel and the Board of Peace believe Hamas’ disarmament should take place before any reconstruction in war-ravaged Gaza takes place.
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