United States President Donald Trump on Monday, August 17, told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the US would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way,” using an expletive for emphasis.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” he was quoted by the news channel.
Fox News did not provide audio of the interview.
This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”
Trump said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on talks to end the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. While “confirming” that the US has a back channel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the US President said he has no time schedule.
“They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” he said. “I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry.”
The Republican President also rejected concerns over the US military stockpile of weapons, saying the amount used is just “peanuts.”
“What we’ve used is peanuts,” Trump said. “We have a lot of mid-level weapons.” Estimates from early August have shown that the US has used more than half of its stockpiles of weapons systems during the war with Iran.
The IRGC, however, immediately denied the claim. Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Brig Gen Hossein Mohbehi refuted Trump’s statements about the back channel with the IRGC.
“There are no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely fantasies caused by the delusions and nightmares he has suffered as a result of defeat and desperation in the war,” Mohbehi was quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News agency.
He said that the army “speaks its word on the battlefield” and that “diplomatic matters fall within the remit of other parts of the Islamic Republic.”
“According to the information we have and based on the statements of the respected officials of the Foreign Ministry, even in this area, no talks are currently taking place with the Americans because of their broken promises and the dark experience of repeated and continual US breaches of commitments,” said Mohbehi.
