WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump threatened military action against Oman, an ally of the United States, if its negotiations with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz interfere with U.S. efforts to reach a peace deal with Tehran.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump told Fox News in an Aug. 17 phone interview, according to Trey Yingst, the network’s chief foreign correspondent who talked to the president.

Outside of talks with the U.S., Iran has engaged in negotiations with Oman about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which borders the two countries and both Iran and the U.S. have asserted control over. But Iranian leaders have said it won’t agree to a deal unless the U.S. meets certain conditions including compensation for Tehran.

Trump has rejected that idea and defended the success of a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports that has sought to prevent Iranian ships from using the strait to transport oil. Trump said last week he’s ready to soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory of the United States.”

Trump’s latest remarks come as a 60-day window for the U.S. to negotiate with Iran ‒ outlined in a memorandum of understanding in June ‒ expires on Aug. 17. The memorandum was intended to give the two sides two more months to hammer out a peace deal, but the parameters of the preliminary agreement instead quickly fell apart, leaving no end in sight to a war that started in late February.

“Iran should wave the white flag of surrender,” Trump told Fox News, according to Yingst. Trump also said, “I have no time schedule” and “I’m not in a hurry,” even as the political fallout of the war in Iran is colliding with the November midterm elections.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.