US President Donald Trump has declared that the ceasefire between the US and Iran is “over”, after a wave of attacks were exchanged by both sides despite the memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed last month.
“I think it’s over,” Trump said on Wednesday morning at a meeting of Nato leaders, hours after the US launched more than 80 strikes on Iran.
Washington said it was responding to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
Tehran responded to the US attacks overnight by launching waves of strikes on US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday morning.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it had targeted 85 facilities.
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Kuwait’s military said its air defences were activated in response to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain’s interior ministry said sirens had sounded and people were urged to take shelter.
Trump launched a scathing attack on Iranian leaders, calling them “scum”.
‘They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people’
– Donald Trump
“They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,” Trump said.
“Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars… there’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
The US president said that talks would continue, but cast doubt over whether they would be successful.
“They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys,” Trump said.
“They’re bad people, and frankly, I don’t want to waste my time with them. Now, I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it.”
The overnight US strikes hit Iran’s air defence systems, command-and-control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile weapons and more than 60 small boats linked to the IRGC, according to a US statement.
Washington said the attacks were aimed at degrading Iranian ability to target commercial shipping.
Tankers hit
Hours earlier on Tuesday, US Central Command said Iran targeted three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, including a Qatari liquefied natural gas vessel.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the tanker, Al Rekayyat, was hit as it attempted to travel towards the Gulf of Oman.
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Doha, which has been a mediator in talks between Iran and the US, condemned the attack.
Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said it was a “serious and explicit violation” of international law and said Doha would hold Tehran responsible for the act of aggression.
All the targeted tankers were struck near Oman, which has proposed a new corridor for international shipping closer to its coastline. Iran rejects such plans, and has said it intends to charge a toll on ships accessing the waterway.
Tehran said that US efforts to create new routes through the strait were a breach of the MoU.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, accused the US of “major” violations of the agreement, including in the Strait of Hormuz, Israeli aggression in Lebanon, as well as the reinstatement of sanctions on Iranian oil.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold,” he wrote on X.
Washington on Tuesday revoked a licence that temporarily lifted oil sanctions on Iran after vessels came under attack from Tehran.
The exchange of fire and rhetoric is the latest breach of the MoU which came into effect last month, and began a 60-day period of negotiations to come to a permanent ceasefire and resolve disagreements about Iran’s nuclear programme.
