Tehran says it has a Hormuz traffic deal with Oman; Muscat has not said so publicly
With the 60-day US–Iran memorandum expired and talks at an impasse, Trump has twice threatened Oman — the state whose waters the strait runs through and whose mediation Iran says has already produced an agreement.
The 60-day memorandum of understanding that provided a window for talks and for reopening the Strait of Hormuz expired on Monday 17 August with no agreement, per CBS, Al Jazeera and NBC. That same day, Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst relayed on air a phone interview in which Trump said of Oman: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--- out of them.” NBC News states no audio of the interview was provided and that the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment; it is a relayed quote, not a recording. On the record in the Oval Office later that day, Trump said: “I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do other things.” The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing two anonymous regional officials, that the threat reflects Trump’s unhappiness that Oman is close to a deal with Iran on managing ship traffic. Al Jazeera notes this is at least the second time Trump has threatened Oman, a US ally not at war with Washington.
The Omani mechanism exists so far mainly in Iranian accounts. The semi-official Mehr News reported on Saturday 15 August that Iran and Oman had agreed a plan for traffic through the waterway; Baghaei told reporters an agreement on shipping routes had been struck and that the two were working on a joint declaration, without elaborating. CBS notes both sides have at times floated fees on ships using the strait and that no concrete plans have been formally announced. Trump, meanwhile, posted an image on 18 August showing the waterway as “New US Territory,” per CNN, having claimed on 14 August he would declare it US territory; the naval blockade remains in effect by his own confirmation. On the diplomatic track, Trump said on Tuesday that no talks are underway or scheduled, days after claiming a back channel to the IRGC — a claim an IRGC spokesman denied to the semi-official Tasnim. CNN reported Wednesday that US wounded since the war began passed 750 in the Defense Department’s casualty database, after a single update added more than 50.
Assessment: The asymmetry is the story: Tehran has announced a bilateral arrangement that Muscat has not publicly confirmed, and an unconfirmed deal is a cheap asset for Iran — it costs nothing to claim, it positions Oman as the party Washington must lean on, and it makes any American strike on Omani interests look like sabotage of a settlement. Read Trump’s threats as pressure on the mediator rather than on Iran. Two cautions. The Post’s account of his motive rests on two anonymous officials at one outlet. And the DCAS wounded figure, though the best-sourced number of the day, lags events by days to weeks: the 50-plus increment does not describe Wednesday’s fighting.