Trump Threatens Oman as Iran Warns of Hormuz Offensive
The collapse of the US-Iran deadline turned openly threatening, with President Trump warning he could bomb Oman over the shipping arrangement it is brokering with Tehran, ruling out any extension of the expired agreement and demanding Iranian capitulation. Iran answered that it would “go on the offensive” in the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy fails. Oil jumped more than 2 per cent to around $90.70 a barrel.
Threatening Oman — the region’s indispensable mediator, and the channel through which every recent US-Iran contact has flowed — marks a startling turn, punishing the one party trying to reopen the strait. With the deadline gone, there is now no framework, no clock and no obvious venue for diplomacy, and both sides are talking in the language of escalation. The oil market, which had priced a managed standoff, moved sharply once the afternoon’s rhetoric landed, dragging gold to fresh records and bond yields higher on the inflation read-through. The gap between threat and action is where the danger lives. Watch whether Oman’s channel survives the pressure and whether either side moves from words to force.