In brief
- US President Donald Trump said he was "not satisfied" with Iran's latest offer in negotiations to end the war.
- Israel declared much of south Lebanon "combat zones" and told all residents to leave.
United States President Donald Trump appeared to threaten to attack US ally Oman if it sides with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said Oman must "behave" or he would "blow them up," when he was asked on Thursday AEST if he would accept a short-term deal to allow Iran and the Gulf state to control the waterway.
"No, the strait is going to be open to everybody," Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House.
"It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They understand that, they'll be fine."
The White House did not immediately respond when asked by the Agence France-Presse news agency if Trump had misspoken and had intended to refer to Iran rather than Oman.
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Oman is a key US ally which has tried to mediate the Middle East war and has itself come under attack from Tehran.
The US State Department later posted a clip and transcript of Trump's comments about Oman, without any correction or clarification.
The 79-year-old did earlier appear to mix up Iran and Venezuela, saying that the South American nation — whose leader Nicolas Maduro was toppled by US forces in January — "no longer has a navy, no longer has an air force".
Trump has repeatedly used such phrasing to refer to Iran, which the US and Israel attacked on 28 February.
Iran has indicated that it seeks to impose a new reality in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's oil normally passes, exacting tolls on transiting ships and sharing the revenues with Oman.
Trump has grown increasingly frustrated as talks to end the Middle East war and reopen the strait appear to have stalled once more, just days after he said a deal was near.
Iran says return to war unlikely; Trump 'not satisfied' with deal
Earlier, Iran said that a return to war with the US was unlikely as the two sides inched towards a deal, though Trump said he was not happy with Iran's latest offer.
The US leader warned he might be compelled to "finish the job" if a better arrangement was not reached, even as optimism for a peace deal that would reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz trade route sent oil prices tumbling.
With fighting paused since an 8 April ceasefire, negotiations to bring an end to the conflict and resume trade through the blockaded waterway have hit repeated roadblocks, leaving the global economy shaken by the tumult.
But senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official Mohammad Akbarzadeh said the likelihood of a return to "war is low because of the enemy's weakness", but warned the military was "lying in wait with full magazines" in the event of an attack, Tasnim news agency reported.
Trump, meanwhile, said in a cabinet meeting that he was in no rush to reach an accord, despite saying at the weekend that one was close.
"Iran is very much intent, they want very much to make a deal. So far they haven't gotten there. We're not satisfied with it, but we will be," he said.
"Either that or we'll have to just finish the job."
Adding to optimism was an Iranian state TV report that said the US had committed in a draft framework to lifting its naval blockade on Iran, as well as restoring traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and withdrawing American forces from the Gulf region.
The report cited what it described as an outline of a potential memorandum of understanding, but the White House swiftly called it "a complete fabrication".
A day earlier, Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire and warned it was prepared to retaliate following the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
The US military said it had launched "self-defence strikes" targeting Iranian missile sites and mine-laying boats overnight earlier this week.
Iran's intelligence ministry, meanwhile, said the US and Israel were still seeking to overthrow the Islamic republic and partition Iran, accusing them of seeking to foment division and carry out sabotage missions.
Israel tells residents of southern Lebanon to leave
Israel's military declared a new swathe of southern Lebanon as a combat zone and said residents in the area should move north, warning it would act "with great force" against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the zone.
The military's statement, posted on X, appeared to signal further escalation after more than 120 strikes hit Lebanon's south and east on Tuesday, despite a ceasefire announced on 16 April.
"We advise residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Zahrani River, as all areas south of the river are considered a combat zone," an Israeli military spokesperson posted on X.
The Zahrani River runs east to west about 40km north of Israel's border with Lebanon, and the Lebanese territory south of it covers about 2,000 square kilometres.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel needed to take further action in Lebanon to protect communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has previously ordered people below the Litani River further south to leave. It already issued individual evacuation orders and carried out strikes in several dozen towns between the Litani and Zahrani.
Wednesday's order was the first time that residents were ordered to evacuate the entire zone south of the Zahrani.
The Israeli military urged civilians to stay away from Hezbollah operatives, facilities and weapons sites.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters that people were fleeing north to the port city of Sidon, already hosting thousands of displaced from other parts of southern Lebanon. The new statement came as Muslims across Lebanon were celebrating Eid al-Adha.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese people have been displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since 2 March, when Hezbollah fired at Israel in support of its ally Iran.
Since then, Israeli strikes have pummelled Lebanon's south, east and its capital Beirut, killing more than 3,200 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
The World Health Organization has said at least 608 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since the truce.
The Israeli military said that 10 of its soldiers had been killed since the ceasefire, six of them by Hezbollah's explosive drones.
The Israeli military expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon past a security zone its troops are occupying, but gave no details on the extent of the advance beyond the so-called Yellow Line.
The Lebanese capital Beirut has been spared new strikes, although Israeli surveillance drones are heard buzzing above the city every day and a warplane was heard flying low on Wednesday, according to Reuters reporters there.
Three senior Israeli officials said Israel believes it has freedom of action in southern Lebanon but less so in Beirut.
The officials told Reuters that Israel does not want to be seen as derailing Trump's potential deal with Iran by knocking down buildings in the Lebanese capital
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