Iran, Oman Near Hormuz Deal as US-Iran Deadline Expires
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- Iran and Oman are close to finalizing a joint statement on Strait of Hormuz transit, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman without fees during an interim period, per Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.
- The 60-day US-Iran negotiation period expired without an extension; Iran effectively closed the strait after Israel-US attacks on February 28, and before the war roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil passed through the waterway.
- Trump told Fox News the US would bomb Oman if it "gets in the way"—his second such threat after a May cabinet remark—and dismissed the deadline's expiry as irrelevant while claiming a back channel with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- Jared Kushner met Netanyahu a day after two-hour talks in Egypt with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya on disarmament; Netanyahu last week rejected a 15-point US-backed Gaza road map that Hamas has agreed to, and Israeli troops currently occupy about 60% of the strip.
- In northern Iraq, drone attacks from Iran's border targeted the office of Masoud Barzani and the home of a top regional intelligence official; US forces are withdrawing before a September 30 deadline to end the US military presence in Iraq.
Why it matters: Reopening the strait is the stated precondition for lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports, and roughly one-fifth of global oil trade depends on the waterway. Trump's threat to bomb the very country brokering the deal with Iran puts US coercive leverage in direct tension with its own Hormuz objective.
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