US-Iran peace prospects dim with Trump in no hurry for a deal

Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg News on Aug 17, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The prospects for peace in the Middle East suffered a fresh setback, with President Donald Trump reportedly saying he is in no hurry to end the war with Iran and fighting flaring anew in Lebanon.

In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports is putting pressure on the country and that he has no timeline for resolving the conflict.

He also warned that if “Oman gets in the way we’ll bomb the s--- out of them,” without giving any further details. He made a similar threat in May. Oman is negotiating with Iran on how the Strait of Hormuz should be managed, but the United States isn’t part of those discussions.

The Iran war has dragged on for almost six months with no resolution in sight. A memorandum of understanding signed in June — which technically expires Monday — was meant to give Washington and Tehran a window to reach a more lasting peace deal within 60 days. But tensions over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz were quick to resurface hostilities, leading to several instances of military action. Both sides have said the agreement is defunct.

Iran and Oman have been involved in parallel discussions over Hormuz, with Tehran warning a deal won’t necessarily translate into a reopening of the crucial maritime route. Iran said a “shipping map” has been finalized as part of a broader agreement for the governance of traffic in the strait, but intensive talks are continuing.

Reaching a deal has been time-consuming due to security complexities and the “obstructionist behavior of destructive elements,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters Monday. Tehran has said the U.S. must remove its blockade.

Trump told Fox News that back channels with officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remain open, something a spokesman later denied as a “delusion,” according to the state-run IRNA.

The price of Brent crude has gained more than 7% since the start of last week as the prospects further dimmed for a swift reopening of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited before the war. The global benchmark rose at much as 1.3% on Monday to $89.68 a barrel.

Tensions in the Middle East were already on the rise over the weekend, when Israel’s military said it killed senior Hezbollah commander Abu Hassan Alaa in southern Lebanon. Eleven people died in the Israeli strikes on Saturday, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said were in retaliation for an attack by the militant group that seriously injured three soldiers.

In recent days, Israel has also struck Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, the Yemen-based Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea, and several vessels have been hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli settlers have meanwhile laid siege to Palestinian homes, drawing international condemnation. Netanyahu has downplayed that violence and blamed a small number of radicals.

Fighting is likely to complicate efforts to revive the deadlocked negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with the 14-point memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran providing for a pause in hostilities “on all fronts, including Lebanon” and free passage through Hormuz.

Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp to a war that’s increasingly unpopular in the U.S. and threatens to penalize Republicans in November’s midterm elections. Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is preparing to announce new economic measures on Tehran “like have never been seen.”

While much of Iran’s industrial capacity has been damaged and crude exports severely curtailed by the U.S. blockade, decades of sanctions have failed to force it to bend on its nuclear program or relinquish control over Hormuz.

Iran has used the relative lull in fighting to prepare for a potentially broader confrontation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Iranian and Arab officials. Tehran has installed hard-line veterans in key security posts and accelerated missile and drone production, it said.

Meanwhile, Trump’s son-in-law and peace envoy Jared Kushner is visiting the Middle East this week to try to accelerate a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. He, along with former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair and Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s top envoy, are holding talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday.

Kushner met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday, The Associated Press said, citing a regional official and a Hamas official.

In a statement, Hamas called on mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to approve a road map setting out the next steps in the truce, the news agency said.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams, Patrick Sykes, Magan Crane and Michelle Jamrisko.)