US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Washington’s ceasefire with Tehran is over, after hostilities between the two sides escalated overnight.
“I think it’s over,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question during a joint press conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte at the military alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday.
He said, “I don’t want to deal with them anymore… As far as I’m concerned, it’s all over.”
He said that the Washington delegation wanted to negotiate a peace agreement, but that they saw it as a “waste of time” with the Iranian side.
Trump’s comments come after the US and Iran accused each other of violating the ceasefire reached last month in the wake of the latest attacks.
The US military conducted “a series of powerful strikes” against Iran on Tuesday in response to the attack on three commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury Department withdrew the waiver that had allowed Iran to sell its oil.
Oil prices rose dramatically along with global benchmarks after Trump spoke crude oil Futures for September delivery jumped 5.7% to trade at about $78.41 a barrel. We West Texas Intermediate Futures closed 5.9% higher at $74.60 a barrel.
oil prices
In a post on X on Tuesday, Central Command said US forces struck more than 80 targets, including air defense systems, command and control networks as well as anti-ship missile capabilities.
It said more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats were attacked in order to reduce Iran’s ability to attack international commerce.
in previous postCENTCOM said the attacks were “to target and attack commercial shipping operated by innocent civilians in international waterways, imposing huge costs.”
“The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial ships that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the attacks a “gross violation of the memorandum of understanding” Washington and Iran agreed to last month to end their war.
“The powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as they have repeatedly shown, will not hesitate to defend Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty and national security against US military aggression,” the ministry said, according to Google Translate.
The US and Iran clashed last month following similar Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the strait, a vital shipping route for oil and other vital commodities.
The effective closure of the waterway after the outbreak of the war saw oil prices rise, raising concerns about an energy shock that could lead to higher inflation around the world.