US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman if the Gulf state “gets in the way” of American efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as a 60-day memorandum of understanding governing the conflict between Washington and Tehran expired without a lasting agreement in place.
Speaking to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump said Iran should “put up the white flag of surrender,” while insisting he was “not in a hurry” to strike a permanent deal. “I have no time schedule,” the president said, adding that his administration had established a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a claim the IRGC has denied.
Iran-US War Latest News: Renewed threat against a longstanding US ally
Trump’s warning to Oman, a nation he has previously threatened over its role in the dispute, marked an escalation in rhetoric even as diplomatic channels remain nominally open. He said bluntly that Washington would “bomb the sh*t out of” Oman should it obstruct American operations in the strait, a vital corridor for global oil shipments. Oman, which has served as a key intermediary in efforts to de-escalate the nearly six-month conflict and has itself absorbed Iranian retaliatory strikes since fighting began in late February, has maintained defence cooperation agreements with Washington for decades, granting American forces access to its ports and airbases.
The president had issued a similar threat in May, telling a White House cabinet meeting that Oman would “behave just like everyone else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” while pressing Gulf states to join the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic framework brokered during his first term to normalise ties between Arab nations and Israel.
Iran-US War Latest News: Ceasefire deadline lapses without resolution
The expiry of the memorandum of understanding on Monday leaves the conflict without a clear diplomatic off-ramp. Trump described the memorandum as “over,” and reiterated that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon remained his administration’s foremost objective in the war, appearing to override advisers who have urged that keeping oil prices in check should take precedence. Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to fresh lows as the deadline approached with no agreement in sight, according to CNBC.
Iran-US War Latest News: Kushner presses Netanyahu on stalled Gaza plan
Away from the Gulf standoff, Trump’s son-in-law and senior Middle East envoy Jared Kushner held talks lasting more than four hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to revive the administration’s stalled Gaza peace initiative. Kushner pressed Netanyahu to advance the ceasefire plan and avoid creating “obstacles,” according to an Israeli source cited by CNN. A senior Israeli official said afterwards that Netanyahu had made clear Israel would not withdraw its forces from Gaza until Hamas fully disarms, and that the military intended to continue operating up to a demarcation line established under an earlier ceasefire agreement.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who sits on Trump’s Board of Peace and previously served as a Middle East envoy for nearly a decade, was also among the officials involved in Monday’s discussions.
Iran-US War Latest News: Disarmament roadmap remains elusive
The talks followed a separate meeting Kushner held with Hamas leaders in Egypt on Sunday, aimed at translating Trump’s broader 15-point peace framework into verifiable steps, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News. Those discussions reportedly covered maintaining the existing Gaza ceasefire, transferring governing responsibilities to a newly proposed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, ensuring Hamas plays no future role in governing the territory, and deploying an international stabilising force. Trump said in late July that Hamas had agreed to “complete disarmament,” though little visible progress has followed, and Netanyahu has publicly rejected elements of the roadmap despite the president’s insistence that his Board of Peace had reached a final agreement.
Iran-US War Latest News: Other fronts open for the administration
The flurry of Middle East diplomacy came a day after Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” a joint military exercise with South Korea, a move he argued was necessary to avoid provoking North Korea. The decision drew criticism from Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, who called it “shortsighted and a mistake.” The president’s Monday schedule included a series of policy meetings, none of which were open to the press, leaving further developments on both the Iran and Gaza fronts likely to emerge through official statements rather than public appearances.
