TV News LIES

US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of Washington’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, according to Fox News.

Fox reporter Trey Yingst said he asked Trump about parallel talks between Iran and Oman over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Yingst, Trump responded: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.”

The threat comes as Iran and Oman say they have reached an understanding on a maritime transit route through the Strait of Hormuz and are working to finalise details for a joint statement.

Iran and Oman continued talks on Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said, adding that there had been security complications caused by US and Israeli military actions.

“Drawing up the maritime transit route plan with Oman has been time-consuming due to security complexities,” Baghaei said, adding that “the issue is inherently complex”.

Speaking on the proposed mechanism, Baghaei said it would aim to protect the sovereign rights and interests of both Iran and Oman while ensuring the safe passage of commercial vessels.

“This is the first time that a mechanism is being developed to simultaneously safeguard the sovereign rights of the two littoral states and ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels,” he said, adding that intensive talks to finalise a joint statement were continuing.

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In his Beirut office, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah is going over his operating list for the weekend: 11 children in total, with life-altering injuries from Israel’s wars on Lebanon and Gaza.

“There are two siblings who have shrapnel from the 2024 war that is now causing medical problems,” the prominent British-Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgeon told Middle East Eye.

“A boy with a partial amputation of his foot that needs reconstruction, from this war, and another boy with an amputation.”

Dr Abu Sittah hopes to finish the stump so that the patient can begin prosthetic rehabilitation.

Another boy with an elbow injury needs a prolonged reconstructive procedure to salvage his elbow joint.

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Israel has rejected US President Donald Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza and will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

The Board of Peace, spearheaded by Trump, announced last month that it had made a breakthrough in a plan to end the war.

Israel and Hamas agreed to the plan last year, beginning with a ceasefire. Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes on Gaza since agreeing to the ceasefire last October.Trump said that Hamas had agreed to lay down its weapons.

“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday.The Israeli army “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”, he added.

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Three Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, while Israeli forces and Jewish settlers wounded dozens more across the occupied West Bank on Saturday.

In the West Bank city of Tubas, Israeli forces stormed the city with military vehicles and deployed soldiers through the centre. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society treated 15 people after troops fired tear gas at residents.

Israeli forces also raided al Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, and fired tear gas inside a house, leaving members of a family, including children, struggling to breathe.

Troops entered the nearby town of Turmus Ayya and the village of Abu Falah, while another Israeli force raided Kobar and fired tear gas in its streets.

Further south, Israeli settlers opened fire during an attack on Wadi al-Rakhim in Masafer Yatta, wounding four Palestinians. Medical workers took a 57-year-old man to hospital after a bullet struck his hand.

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A pause in fighting between the U.S. and Iran came to a screeching halt after Tehran launched what the Trump administration is calling a "surprise attack" that American forces in the Middle East had only minutes to shoot down.

The July 28 ballistic missile assault threatened to reinvigorate a conflict that President Donald Trump has aimed to wind down after months of negotiations. Trump vowed the U.S. would "beat the f------ s--- out of them," he told Fox News. The latest attacks raised fears of a wider war as Saudi Arabia joined the conflict and Iran seeks to test Trump's resolve with the midterm elections looming.

Trump's promised retaliatory strikes on Iran began at about 8 p.m. ET on July 29. Central Command, the arm of the military overseeing operations in the Middle East, announced the attacks, calling them "powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces."

"We're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them. They know it's coming," Trump had told reporters earlier at the White House.

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Washington has reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports after the collapse of a planned peace deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran. 

For decades, the US has tried to isolate Iran, holder of the world’s third largest proven oil reserves, from the global shipping industry with a range of sanctions.

However, the Islamic Republic has been able to maintain some revenue through a network of rickety tankers often described as its “shadow fleet”, which occupy a legal grey zone and use subterfuge to skirt the US measures.

How do shadow fleets work?

Shadow tankers, also known as “dark fleets” or “ghost fleets”, are ships that operate on the fringes of the global shipping industry to transport oil and other commodities from countries facing western sanctions.

Many are ageing vessels that evade detection on marine traffic databases by turning off their mandatory tracking signals or broadcasting false locations. 

Iran is not the only country involved in such operations: Russia, which is also subject to oil sanctions, likewise operates a shadow fleet. Venezuela did so until the US attack on the country earlier this year and the seizure of many of its tankers.

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