Trump Declares Iran Ceasefire Over After Strike Exchange
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- Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran "over" at a NATO summit in Turkey, calling Iran's leadership "scum" and "cuckoo," and dismissed further negotiations as "a waste of time," saying "I don't care."
- Both countries traded strikes overnight Tuesday into Wednesday — US Central Command said it responded to attacks on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran retaliated by targeting US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait.
- Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of breaching the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on lifting oil sanctions and "violating Iranian adjustments in the Strait," declaring: "The era of bullying and extortion is over."
- The US revoked its temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil sales, sending oil prices higher though still well below levels seen during the full closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iranian state media reported eight army members were killed in US strikes on Bandar Abbas and Bushehr in southern Iran, while a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned any new US strikes would draw "immediate response."
- NATO chief Mark Rutte called the American strikes "absolutely necessary," saying Iran was "basically violating the ceasefire," as more than 20 US Navy warships continued patrolling Middle East waters.
- Negotiations had already been paused for funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of US-Israel strikes on Iran, with no clear timeline for talks to resume.
Why it matters: The unraveling of the June 17 MoU — which had called for a 60-day ceasefire, safe Strait of Hormuz passage, and lifted sanctions — raises the prospect of renewed direct US-Iran combat and continued energy-market volatility, especially with 20+ US warships still deployed across the Middle East and Iran striking as far as Bahrain and Kuwait.
