President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a US deal with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz and called for Iran to surrender.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, referring to ongoing talks between Oman and Iran on control of the strait, while Washington is also pursuing its own talks.

Iranian and Omani officials have been talking for weeks on future maritime navigation arrangements through the shipping route, and the foreign ministry in Tehran said earlier Monday that the two sides were working on a joint declaration.

However, Trump has repeatedly insisted that the Strait — which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war on February 28 — is under US control despite traffic remaining throttled.


On Friday, Trump claimed that he would even declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, while Iran retorted that the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded “will remain Iranian.”

Prior to the launch of the US-Israeli war against Iran, the Hormuz Strait was considered an open, international waterway. It carries significant portions of global energy shipments, as well as other commodities.

Tehran has used its effective seizing of control over the strait as leverage against the US-led attempts to destroy its military and force it to abandon a controversial nuclear power program.

Iran’s coast flanks the north side of Hormuz, and Oman lies on the south.

Trump also said that Iran should “put up the white flag of surrender,” according to Yingst’s post on X on his interview with the president.

Trump insisted that he was in no hurry to reach a deal despite the deep unpopularity of the war among Americans ahead of November midterm elections in the United States, with opposition Democrats seeking to take control of Congress from Trump’s Republicans.

Trump told Yingst that there is a direct back-channel between his administration and officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. “They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” he was quoted as saying.







AFP

An Ebola outbreak has now killed 2,325 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak of the virus, according to government figures released Monday.

The United Nations says that the Ebola outbreak “is the fastest-growing on record” and is killing a victim every 30 minutes in the DRC.

The deaths were from 4,945 confirmed cases, overtaking an outbreak in 2018-2020 that killed 2,299 people in the DRC from 3,381 confirmed cases.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever hit West Africa in 2013-2016, killing more than 11,300 people, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The DRC outbreak began in the conflict-scarred northeastern province of Ituri and has since spread to five other provinces in the sprawling central African country of more than 100 million people.

Declared on May 15, it is thought to have already been spreading for several weeks at that point, and is the DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak.

The World Health Organization last week said it hoped to reverse the spread of the disease in the country within three months.

Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes a haemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

Iran’s military has announced a reward of about $30,000 for anyone who kills or captures a US soldier, with women promised twice that amount if they carry out the act.

Army Chief, Amir Hatami said the initiative was introduced following what he described as numerous requests from individuals seeking to contribute financially to the country’s military efforts, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

However, Hatami did not specify where or when the alleged targeting of US military personnel was expected to occur.

“There has been a large number of requests to participate in financial support,” Hatami said, explaining the basis for the initiative.

Under the scheme, anyone who kills or captures and hands over a US military personnel would receive the equivalent of $30,000, or five billion Iranian tomans, from the Iranian Army.

Hatami added that Iranian women who successfully carry out such an act would be eligible for twice the standard reward.

“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he said.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions and intermittent hostilities between Iran and the United States.

There has been no known deployment of US ground troops inside Iran during the conflict, apart from a rescue operation in April involving an American pilot whose aircraft had been brought down.

According to the report, the conflict between Tehran and Washington began on February 28, following a US-Israeli attack on Iran. The fighting continued for nearly 40 days before an April ceasefire was reached.

A framework for peace negotiations was subsequently agreed in June, but the process later broke down.

Since then, Iran and the United States have continued to exchange fire intermittently, with much of the reported fighting concentrated in southern Iran and areas surrounding the strategically important Strait of Hormuz