Trump declares Iran ceasefire 'over' after strikes exchange
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran 'over' at a NATO summit in Ankara, calling Iranian leaders 'scum,' 'sick people,' and 'vicious, violent people' who would use a nuclear weapon 'if they had' one.
- Iran said it struck 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation for US attacks on Iran's Hormozgan province and the port city of Mahshahr.
- The US said it launched strikes against more than 80 targets after Iranian attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which roughly 20 percent of the world's traded oil passes.
- Trump said he would speak to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have been leading US negotiations, but characterized talks with Tehran as 'a waste of time'.
- The flare-up threatens last month's US-Iran agreement to extend the ceasefire and enter talks on ending the war, though the source notes neither country has 'immediately signalled their intention to abandon negotiations.'
- The round of strikes followed a promised pause in US attacks while Iran held funerals for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who the source says was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war on February 28.
Why it matters: The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global traded oil flows, has now seen direct attacks on shipping and retaliatory strikes on regional US bases — escalating a war that the White House and Tehran had agreed just last month to pause and negotiate. With Trump declaring diplomacy a 'waste of time' even as he keeps his envoys engaged, the off-ramp to that deal is visibly narrowing.
