WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump threatened military action against Oman, an ally of the United States, if its negotiations with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz interfere with U.S. efforts to reach a peace deal with Tehran.
"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--- out of them," Trump told Fox News in an Aug. 17 phone interview, according to Trey Yingst, the network's chief foreign correspondent who talked to the president.
Outside of talks with the U.S., Iran has engaged in negotiations with Oman about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which borders the two countries and both Iran and the U.S. have asserted control over. But Iranian leaders have said it won't agree to a deal unless the U.S. meets certain conditions including compensation for Tehran.
Trump has rejected that idea and defended the success of a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports that has sought to prevent Iranian ships from using the strait to transport oil. Trump said last week he's ready to soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a "territory of the United States."
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U.S. President Donald Trump, seen here waving as he walks from Marine One to a vehicle at the Ellipse near the White House, threatened military action Monday against Oman if its negotiations with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz interfere with U.S. efforts to reach a peace deal.
Trump's latest remarks come as a 60-day window for the U.S. to negotiate with Iran ‒ outlined in a memorandum of understanding in June ‒ expires on Aug. 17. The memorandum was intended to give the two sides two more months to hammer out a peace deal, but the parameters of the preliminary agreement instead quickly fell apart, leaving no end in sight to a war that started in late February.
"Iran should wave the white flag of surrender," Trump told Fox News, according to Yingst. Trump also said, "I have no time schedule" and "I'm not in a hurry," even as the political fallout of the war in Iran is colliding with the November midterm elections.
Dimming prospects for a U.S-Iran deal to quickly emerge, Trump has repeatedly accused Iranian leaders of lying to him by saying one thing in their private negotiations and then the opposite in public.
The two sides dispute who controls the Strait of Hormuz, which about 20% of the world's crude oil and liquified gas pass through as a critical access point for Middle East oil exports. Since the MOU's unraveling, Iran has resumed attacks on ships in the strait that Iranian leaders say lack permission to access the channel.
Through the U.S. naval blockade, Trump claims the United States has opened the strait to all commercial ships other than those from Iran, crippling Iran's economy because of its reliance on oil exports.
But Iran has rejected Trump's characterization of the strait, asserting the waterway is instead under the "complete management and control" of Iran and that no commercial ships can go through without its permission.
