Trump Says Iran Unlikely to Accept Deal, Warns Oman on Hormuz
Trump says Iran won't agree to terms he deems necessary, threatens Oman over Hormuz shipping talks.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran is unlikely to accept the terms he considers essential for ending hostilities, as the 60-day window for negotiating a final agreement under the June memorandum of understanding expires.
"They're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, reiterating that the core US objective is preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Asked whether Washington would seek to extend the interim deal signed in June, Trump replied simply: "No."
The memorandum, which declared an immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts, has already unravelled. Trump declared the arrangement "over" on July 7, and Iran's foreign ministry said it was "suspended" a week later.
Under the original terms, both sides committed to negotiating a comprehensive agreement — covering issues including the fate of Iran's nuclear programme — within 60 days, with the possibility of extension by mutual consent. Monday marks exactly 60 days since the memorandum was signed.
Earlier in the day, Trump told Fox News in a phone interview that Iran "should put up the white flag of surrender."
Separately, Oman and Iran have been in talks aimed at restoring commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before US-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February.
Trump warned that if Oman obstructs US objectives, "we'll bomb the shit out of them." Asked later whether he had lost patience with Oman, Trump said: "No, I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things."
The dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up fuel prices and increased pressure on Trump to end a war that remains unpopular at home ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of the US Congress.
Trump dismissed any suggestion that electoral politics were shaping his approach, telling Fox News: "Midterms have nothing to do with my thinking."
In a post on his Truth Social platform earlier Monday, Trump wrote: "The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon."