Full story
Oman threat as deadline ends
President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of U.S. efforts to negotiate with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz as the 60-day memorandum of understanding expires.
““If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--- out of them,””
NBC News reported Trump said, “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--- out of them,” in a phone interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, and later told reporters in the Oval Office, “We have total control over the strait.”
CBS News said Monday marked 60 days since the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding calling for a wider peace deal to be negotiated within that timeframe, while it described the war as stuck in stalemate with “no concrete plans to end the 24-week war.”
ABC News reported Trump said the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz and called it a “great idea,” while also insisting Iran’s military is “totally defeated.”
Backchannels and competing claims
Trump also claimed the U.S. has a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Iranian officials denied it, as the BBC reported an IRGC spokesman said there were “no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans.”
The BBC quoted Trump in the Oval Office replying “No” when asked whether he was seeking an extension to the 60-day memorandum of understanding, even as it said the MoU is expiring and the future of U.S.-Iran talks is unclear.
In a separate thread, the BBC said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters that Tehran had reached an agreement with Oman regarding future shipping routes in the strait, and described it as “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”
CNN reported that Trump pushed back on reports about conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, calling the reporting “fake news,” and said the carrier had been deployed for more than 250 days after being redirected to the Middle East to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran.
Shipping, oil, and regional fallout
As the Strait of Hormuz remained a focal point, NBC News said shipping traffic nearly ground to a halt over the weekend, with just 13 ships passing through the waterway including three Sunday, according to maritime traffic tracker MarineTraffic.
“with just 13 ships passing through the waterway, including three Sunday”
CBS News said the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 2.7% to $90.87 and described uncertainty about what the war with Iran will do to global crude flow, including that Brent zigzagged between $72 and $102 last month.
The Guardian reported that Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” while it also said the president called for Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender.”
Beyond the strait, AP News said Iran said it was near finalizing a deal with Oman for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, and it also reported Houthi rebels claimed they attacked a ship and four military boats in the Red Sea off the Yemeni city of Mokha, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
