'We'll bomb them': Trump's warning to Oman raises questions over Iran talks

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump threatened Oman with military action if it interferes with his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, pressuring a Gulf partner involved in the diplomacy.

Oman has been talking with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that talks were “continuing in earnest.”

Trump made the threat during a Fox News interview on Monday, August 17, as a two-month negotiating window with Tehran closed without a final agreement.

Trump puts Oman in the middle of Iran talks

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them,” Trump said, directing the threat at Muscat for the second time.

Oman has traditionally served as a key backchannel between Washington and Tehran and has played a mediation role in the war. 

The Gulf nation of 5.3 million people has also come under attack from Tehran.

Trump’s latest warning came as he said he was “not in a hurry” to reach a deal, despite repeatedly saying the war would end “soon” and promoting the prospect of a lasting peace agreement.

“I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry,” Trump said, while also telling Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender.”

The diplomatic window had been established by a June 17 memorandum of understanding Trump signed with Iran at the Palace of Versailles on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

The agreement paused hostilities and set a maximum 60-day period for reaching a comprehensive deal on sanctions relief, Iran’s nuclear program, and other disputes.

President Trump has threatened Oman before

Monday’s warning was not the first time Trump has threatened Oman. 

During a May cabinet meeting, he said he would “blow up” the country if it failed to “behave.”

The renewed threat also comes after Trump said on Friday that he could declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States.”

The Strait has been closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February. Iran lies north of the waterway and Oman to the south, while the two countries have been discussing control of the Strait.

Trump also used Truth Social to restate his negotiating red line, writing that the “number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon.”

Trump dismisses US arsenal concerns

The president also dismissed concerns that nearly six months of fighting had depleted US weapons stocks, telling Fox News that what Washington had expended against Iran was “peanuts.”

Trump said many advanced US munitions, including air defense systems, had already been “given away” to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden.

CNN reported earlier this month that defense analysts had warned earlier in the war that US and allied stockpiles were being drawn down faster than they could be replenished.

Trump also confirmed for the first time that Washington had opened a direct backchannel to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the US and Israel have targeted during the conflict.

“They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” Trump said of the IRGC leadership.

Iran’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, said talks with Oman were continuing despite Trump’s latest outburst.