Iran’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmail Baghaei announced today that Iran and Oman have reached “an understanding… regarding the map of the transit route” through the Strait of Hormuz, and that the two sides are now working to finalize details for a joint statement to accompany the release of the map. While he conceded that the talks with Oman have gone slowly, he added that “we had planned, and still plan, to finalize the understanding in the form of a package: the map plus a joint statement.”
When asked by Fox News about Baghaei’s announcement, on the 60th and last day of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Iran and the U.S., President Trump did not seem happy about the prospect. Despite the fact that he signed the MoU which called for Iran and Oman to work out a cooperative way to manage the Strait, he countered: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s—- out of them.” While Washington has been privately pressuring Oman, supposedly a long-term ally, not to agree to co-manage the Strait that they share with Iran, Trump said the quiet part out loud.
