As 60-day MoU expires, Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it 'gets in the way' of Iran negotiations

After the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran expired on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic should “put up the white flag of surrender.” 

In a phone conversation with Fox News’ Try Yingst, the president reiterated that the number one goal for his administration is preventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account shortly before the phone call with Yingst. 

Despite upcoming elections in the United States, the president said he feels no pressure to alter his current course of continued economic sanctions and a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz for Iranian traffic. 

“I have no time schedule,” President Trump told Yingst during the call. “I'm not in a hurry.” 

“Midterms have nothing to do with my thinking,” he added. 

While Hormuz remains a highly contested issue in the negotiations, President Trump issued an odd warning to Oman, which has been negotiating with Iran over the strait for the past several weeks. 

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--- out of them,” Trump was reported by Yingst as saying. 

“I don’t think they [Oman] behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do others,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office hours later. 

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.” 

While Baghaei did not release any details of the agreement, previous reports claimed that the two countries were in discussions on a plan which would see traffic entering the strait in an Iranian-controlled waterway along the country’s coastline, with exiting traffic using a route near the coast of Oman, on the southern part of the strait. 

The threat to Oman is not the first. In May, President Trump told reporters that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.” 

At the same time, negotiations between the U.S. and Iran continue behind the scenes. 

Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy Jared Kushner affirmed that negotiations are continuing, although they have not reached an understanding. 

Speaking to Fox News’ Yingst in a separate interview, Kushner said that President Trump is being patient as he waits for the Iranians to move closer to the U.S. positions. 

“If Iran is willing to finish the deal that they’ve been discussing with us to give up their ability to create a nuclear weapon, then [Trump] wants to make a deal that could be great for the Iranian people,” he explained. “But right now they’re not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us.” 

“President Trump is going to be very patient. He doesn’t want to rush you [to] a deal. He’ll make the right deal when the right deal is ready. But we are having very positive and active conversations,” Kushner added. 

He also claimed that conversations between the two sides are “more robust” than ever. 

“I can't go into the details of it, but I will say that the conversations between the U.S. government and different areas of the Iranian government at ‌all areas is probably more robust than it's maybe ever been,” Kushner claimed. 

During the interview with Yingst, Trump again claimed to have ongoing communications, even with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

This claim was challenged by IRGC Spokesperson Brig.-Gen Hossein Mohebbi, who denied any dialogue between the two sides. 

“There is no dialogue taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans,” Mohebbi told the Tasnim News Agency. 

Mohebbi called on the U.S. to admit failure and defeat, saying, “The sooner and faster the Americans accept their failure and make decisions accordingly, the more they can save their country from greater and heavier losses.” 

President Trump told reporters on Monday that Iran “wants to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of deal that I feel is necessary.” 

However, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran will shift to a "fully offensive" military posture after the U.S. declined to extend the MoU. 

"Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions," the official said, claiming that Iranian forces would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack aimed at breaking the U.S. naval blockade of Hormuz.