Trump threatens Oman as it works with Iran on a Strait of Hormuz deal, and other Middle East news

U.S. President Donald Trump has again threatened Oman as Iran says it is working with the Gulf Arab country on a plan to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Fully reopening the waterway has been a key U.S. demand.

Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.

Here’s a look at the latest developments Monday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalize details for a joint statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran, Iran's capital, that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”

He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during an interim period.

The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Baghaei conceded the talks with Oman have gone slowly, “but we had planned, and still plan, to finalize the understanding in the form of a package: the map plus a joint statement.”

Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way,” using an expletive for emphasis.

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 also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on talks to end the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. Trump said the U.S. has a back channel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst added.

Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the day after he had a rare, two-hour meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament of the Palestinian militant group.

Netanyahu last week rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward in Gaza.

Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on.

But Israel, which under the road map must gradually withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip, and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance further.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked a ship and four military boats on Monday in the Red Sea off the Yemeni city of Mokha, near the strategic Bab el-Mandab Strait.

The rebels fired a number of ballistic missiles at the vessels, resulting in the capsizing and burning of the boats, Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, said in a statement.

The rebels claimed that the vessels belonged to Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the Houthi claim.

Saree also said the rebels launched a drone attack on government forces in the central province of Marib.

Two officials in northern Iraq were targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.

One was fired at the office of Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.

There were no casualties. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Iran war, Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militant groups have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday’s direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.

Barzani on X called the attack “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region.”

U.S. forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

This story corrects the first name of the prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to Masrour Barzani, instead of Masoud Barzani.

FILE - Jared Kushner waits to walk into the ring after the lightweight championship bout at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, June 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Palestinians remove iron from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hamas, repair and recycle it for construction, building tents or selling it, in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A woman mourns during the funeral of Hezbollah member Ali al-Haj Hassan, his wife and four children who were killed the previous day by an Israeli airstrike, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Palestinians remove iron from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hamas, repair and recycle it for construction, building tents or selling it, in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — Thunderstorms, heavy rain and flash flooding continued to threaten a swath of the U.S. from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic Monday, extending a deadly stretch of unsettled weather.

The National Weather Service said repeated rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms would continue for one more day before a cold front sweeps the weather pattern off the East Coast on Tuesday. In the meantime, much of West Virginia, southeast Ohio and northeast Kentucky were under a flood watch through Monday evening, with high water lingering from previous storms increasing the possibility of flash flooding.

Elsewhere, hot weather posed more of a problem, particularly across the South, Southeast and Southwest. The weather service issued extreme heat warnings for portions of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and California.

In Indiana, where days of storms and flooding left at least seven people dead, floodwaters receded in Indianapolis’ White River and rains eased in other parts of the state Sunday. But a flood warning remained in effect Monday morning for part of Randolph County in east central Indiana, where thunderstorms had dropped between 1 and 2 inches of rain by 8 a.m., and residents of half a dozen counties were urged to stay off the roads except for essential travel.

“While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over,” said Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis, where city officials on Sunday launched a website to support affected residents.

South of Indianapolis, officials in Madison Township said firefighters and others rescued 10 people from their homes Sunday night. Others had to be rescued from their cars after attempting to drive through flooded roadways.

“This remains an active and potentially dangerous situation,” the fire department said in a social media post. “We cannot stress this enough: DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD WATERS.”

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms that began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Also, among the seven victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis. Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.

More than 106,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of Monday morning, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days. Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service forecasts heavy rain and thunderstorms across the upper Ohio Valley to the central Appalachians, with the possibility of severe storms late Monday across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

Scott Conrad, left, Joseph Workman, right, and Kesley Patterson, back to camera, push a kayak through floodwaters as they transport items from their flooded homes in Indianapolis, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Obed Lamy)

Darius Canler and Curtis Carey carry a TV from their flooded home in Indianapolis, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Obed Lamy)

Scott Conrad, left, Joseph Workman, second from left, Ronan Carey, in the boat, and Kesley Patterson use a kayak to transport items from their flooded homes in Indianapolis, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Obed Lamy)