Trump Threatens To ‘Bomb The S**t’ Out Of Oman & Touts IRGC Backchannel

President Trump has issued some fresh Monday remarks on Iran, after a weekend where he was relatively quiet on the conflict he launched nearly six months ago, which has long been the central controversial decision made as Commander-in-Chief, threatening to define his whole second term.

In a short interview with Fox News reporter Trey Yingst, who frequently reports from Jerusalem and the Middle East, Trump threatened to bomb Oman if the Gulf country “gets in the way” of US efforts to negotiate and strike a favorable peace deal with Iran.

“I asked the president about… parallel talks that are taking place between Iran and Oman about control of the Strait of Hormuz,” Yingst introduced. Trump then responded: “if Oman gets in the way [of US control in the Strait of Hormuz], we’ll bomb the s**t out of them.”

But already, Oman and Iran have been hammering out a nearly finalized Hormuz Strait deal, which essentially cuts the United States out of negotiations and management of the vital energy transit waterway. The deal is widely seen as ceding to Tehran de facto control of the strait, and thus also giving the Iranians major continued leverage in the ongoing standoff and conflict with Washington.

The timing of Trump’s remarks are further interesting given that on the same day, 60-day window established in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between the US and Iran in June has finally expired.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday made clear its position that the deadline was “irrelevant” anyway given that talks never began as the US resumed hostilities. Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said that under the MoU, the ceasefire window intended to give the two sides time to discuss “the nuclear issue” and “the lifting of sanctions”; however he charged the US with violating the terms and thus destroying the chance for talks.

But despite that the MoU will now go down as another failed opportunity, President Trump surprisingly raised another avenue, telling Fox that there is a backchannel with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials. The IRGC of course represents a ‘hardline’ aspect to Iranian governance and military command structure, and so it’s surprising that this would be Trump’s alleged backchannel.

Trump asserted that Iran should raise “the white flag of surrender” – but that he has “no time schedule” and is in “no hurry” to make a deal. He noted his observation that the Iranian’s are “good poker players, but they’re dying,” said Trump.

In the interview the president was also asked about widespread reports that the Pentagon is running out of missiles – of both defensive interceptor and offensive variety – due to the Iran and Ukraine wars:

Regarding US munitions used against Iran, Trump said that what has been used so far against Iran “is peanuts.”

Trump added that while the US has many mid-level weapons, many of the more advanced weapons, including air-defense systems, were “given away” to Ukraine by former US President Joe Biden.

Trump separately on Monday reiterated the following warning on nuclear weapons in fresh Truth Social Post:

In the meantime there continues to be nothing but bad options for the administration. Tehran will seek to bleed, pressure, and humiliate Trump going into the November midterms. Iran wants global economic and energy pain to come back and bite Americans, and thus sink Republicans in Congressional elections.

Joey Hood, former acting director of the Office of Iranian Affairs at the US State Department, has pointed out that Trump has encouraged Americans to see higher prices as “a very small tax in exchange for making sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.”

Hood underscored, “But I don’t think any of those objectives have really been reached.” He explained, “The Trump administration is very lucky that oil prices haven’t ballooned, because countries around the world have taken measures to try to absorb the shock. There are also still ships getting through the strait, perhaps by turning off their transponders and passing through undetected.”

The Iranians have been signaling that they have moved from a defensive posture to an offensive one, which they warn will be more aggressive in dealing with Washington action and provocation.