Trump lashes out at Oman as preliminary deal with Iran expires
In a phone interview, the president threatened to bomb Oman, a U.S. ally, if it "gets in the way."
As a crumbling truce with Iran officially collapsed Monday, President Donald Trump signaled his frustration at his inability to resolve a war that he started but cannot seem to end.
In an interview with Fox News, the president lashed out at a U.S. ally, Oman, that has been trying to mediate negotiations with Iran.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump said in a phone interview, according to Fox News’ Trey Yingst.
The latest threat toward Oman, which has facilitated talks between the United States and Iran for years and maintains that it is still a neutral mediator, came as Trump found himself without much leverage to reach the goals he set out at the start of the war.
Hostilities have now stretched past the six-month mark in a conflict that began with the United States and Israel launching strikes across Iran in February. Administration officials pledged at the time that the war would be over in four to six weeks.
In June, the two sides agreed to a memorandum of understanding, but that quickly fall apart amid disputes over its wording. Both Trump and Iran’s leaders have said the deal is essentially dead.
As the ceasefire officially expires, the president and his team have promised to level crushing sanctions against Iran this week, though the details of those plans have yet to be unveiled. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the United States can maintain a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping corridor, indefinitely — an acknowledgment that there was no end to the war in sight.
In the Fox News interview, Trump sought to project patience, saying he was “not in a hurry” to secure a deal while maintaining that his central goal remained preventing Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon.
But in the meantime, it was Oman that received the president’s fury.
It was the second time this year the president has threatened the country. After it emerged in May that Oman had discussed partnering with Iran to charge fees for ships to pass through the strait, Trump snapped.
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” Trump told reporters that month. “They understand that. They’ll be fine.”
A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.