Top US general said urging Iran war ‘off-ramp’ as Tehran and Oman near Hormuz deal

Caine reportedly warned Trump advisors that further military action could backfire; Iranian Guards say negotiations with Muscat have ‘nothing to do’ with reopening key waterway

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately said in recent weeks that the United States needs “an off-ramp” from the war with Iran, believing that the military options currently being considered could backfire and that airstrikes alone are unlikely to accomplish the administration’s goals, CNN reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Caine was not the only administration official who believes the US was at a crossroads in the war. He reportedly discussed the possibility of an off-ramp with other top advisers to US President Donald Trump, including Vice President JD Vance, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Caine met with the officials to ensure they were in agreement on Iran ahead of planned meetings with Trump, aiming to outline the shortfalls of military action on that front, according to the report.

A source quoted by CNN lamented that the options now under consideration were not weighed sooner: “It is rough when you are looking at those options in the middle of the war instead of before it starts.”

Despite his reservations, the report said Caine told Trump that if he wanted to move ahead in escalating against Iran, “We could absolutely wreck them.”

In response to the report, a spokesperson for Caine told the cable network, “We do not discuss the Chairman’s confidential conversations with the President, the Secretary, or other senior leaders, nor do we comment on anonymous, agenda-driven characterizations of those conversations by sources who were not privy to them.”

Iran, Oman close in on Hormuz deal

The reported discussions came as Iran and Oman appeared to be nearing an agreement on arrangements for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively blockaded since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Tehran and Muscat were “very close” to reaching an accord on a new shipping route through the strategic waterway.

He added that there would be conditions, including compensation for what Tehran said were US violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, a June agreement between the US and Iran to set terms for peace talks.

Iran and Oman were discussing a temporary shipping route while technical and legal issues surrounding a permanent route were resolved, Araghchi added.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation of the memorandum of understanding by the United States,” Araghchi said.

A US official similarly said Friday that progress had been made in the Iran-Oman talks and that “we expect a deal soon.”

Trump has been asserting a deal was imminent since last week, when he called off a major military strike against Iranian energy sites.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, however, insisted Saturday that reopening the strait was unrelated to the negotiations with Oman and would depend on Washington accepting Tehran’s conditions.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to the specific mechanisms and conditions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is unrelated to the negotiations between Iran and Oman,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency cited IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi as saying.

Additionally, Araghchi said Saturday that talks with Oman were “approaching the final stages,” but cautioned that “this is not a sign of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

The IRGC, the ideological arm of the Iranian military, echoed that message.

“The opening of the Strait of Hormuz has its own mechanism and has nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman,” the force said.

“The enemy is forced to accept Iran’s conditions for the opening of the strait and to refrain from the interference that it is currently making in the negotiations — which have almost reached their end — between Iran, Oman and other countries.”

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, a demand the US fiercely opposes, while negotiating with neighboring Oman over arrangements for the waterway’s future management.

Attacks on shipping continue amid talks

The diplomatic movement came alongside continued attacks on shipping in the strait.

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday that Iran had targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The UAE Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a “hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties.”

Later Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said a ship had been hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished without casualties.

It was unclear whether the two reports referred to the same vessel.

On Friday, ADNOC said that since the start of the war, 15 of its vessels had been attacked in Hormuz, “including three vessels this week alone.”

Before US-Israeli strikes in February kicked off what quickly became a regional war, the Strait of Hormuz carried around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.