President Donald Trump has threatened to launch an attack on ally Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, which remains largely out of service amid the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
He had previously threatened to “blow up” the country if it did not “behave”.
Iranian and Omani officials remained in discussions over the beleaguered waterway on Monday, as a 60-day ceasefire deal expired.
Tehran will escalate tensions in Hormuz and the wider region if diplomacy fails, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday. They highlighted that this would make a shift from defense to offense.
“Iran will not wait for the U.S. to continue its blockade indefinitely,” they said.
On Friday, Trump had threatened to declare the shipping route American territory and later claimed he was “joking”, according to a US official who spoke to a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Previous threats to Oman were made in May, when the leader said during a cabinet meeting at the White House: “Oman will behave just like everyone else, or we’ll have to blow them up.”
This is a breaking news story. More to follow…