Trump says ceasefire ‘over’ after U.S., Iran trade attacks
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes the ceasefire and interim agreement to end the war with Iran are now “over” as the two sides traded strikes after Tehran was accused of attacking three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
Trump said he would allow negotiators to continue talks, but that ultimately it was “just a waste of time dealing with them.”
His comments come after Iran launched a wave of attacks against American bases in the Gulf on Wednesday in retaliation for U.S. strikes. Washington said this was because Tehran had earlier hit three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran had yet to comment on Wednesday morning on whether it considered the ceasefire or interim agreement between the two sides over.
Its foreign ministry had said, prior to Trump’s comments, that U.S. and Israeli actions had “rendered key and fundamental elements of the agreement to end the war ineffective.”
The intense exchange has raised fears for the future of talks as the two countries seek to agree a lasting end to the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes in February.
The fresh outburst of violence came as Trump was in neighboring Turkey for a summit of NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance. Iran, meanwhile, was holding a mass, dayslong funeral for its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Restoring maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global trade route, has been at the heart of ongoing disputes between Washington and Tehran. Iran has argued that it has a right to charge fees for ships passing through the strait.
Negotiations had been on pause until the end of the funeral proceedings Thursday, but the renewed attacks will raise further doubts about the peace process.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
U.S. and Iran exchange strikes
U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday that it had completed its strikes and that more than 80 targets had been hit with precision munitions. They included Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 small boats of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard in and near the strait to “degrade Iran’s ability” to attack ships in the waterway.
A U.S. official described the strikes as bigger than previous U.S. retaliatory strikes against the Islamic Republic and said they were carried out with Air Force jets and Navy tactical aircraft.
The command said earlier that the “series of powerful strikes” were a response to “Iran’s demonstrated aggression,” describing it as “unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”
A U.S. official also told NBC News that the attacks were carried out specifically because of Iranian strikes on ships in the strait.
“This response is a direct result of the acts of international terrorism that have been perpetrated by Iran on innocent ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. official said. “The Iranians know the consequences to their ridiculous actions, yet they still chose to carry out these attacks.”
A video posted online and verified by NBC News shows multiple explosions at a port in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas as a stream of cars drive by on a nearby road.
Several people were injured by shrapnel from explosions at the commercial pier in the town of Sirik, which is in the Strait of Hormuz, and were transferred to a hospital in the nearby city of Minab, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Early Wednesday, missile alerts sounded in both Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait, which is home to U.S. Army forces.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had conducted a joint missile and drone operation against 85 key U.S. military sites in Bandar Salman, the U.S. Fifth Fleet area in Bahrain, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. It also said that it had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone.
“America’s child-killing and terrorist military, during the early hours of this morning, openly violated the ceasefire and breached the Islamabad understanding by carrying out airstrikes against several coastal bases and civilian stations along the coasts of Hormozgan Province and Mahshahr,” it said.
The Pentagon hasn’t commented on those claims and it’s unclear whether any U.S. sites suffered damage.
Hormuz ship attacks
A similar exchange of attacks took place in late June, with an Iranian attack on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz followed by U.S. military strikes in and around the strait and retaliatory Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The U.S. on Tuesday also revoked its waiver of temporary sanctions, which had allowed the sale of Iranian oil on the global market, because of Iran’s attacks.
The revoked waiver, listed on the Treasury Department’s website, said the move was effective immediately. It also said any production, delivery or sale of Iranian oil must be wound down by July 17. The waiver had originally allowed sales until Aug. 21.
The U.S. said Iran had attacked three tankers flagged to Liberia, Saudi Arabia and the Marshall Islands.
One tanker was traveling off Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after it ignored warnings but did not directly claim the assault or any other attacks on ships.
The two other ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, and both continued on their way, the U.K. maritime agency said.
Oil prices surged from around $69 a barrel to nearly $73 with the latest developments, after weeks of relative calm in oil markets.
Talks on hold amid funeral
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Doha, Qatar, last week and held talks with Qatari mediators but did not meet directly with Iranian negotiators who were also in Doha.
Among the most difficult issues to be negotiated are possible restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of enriched uranium.
The talks appear to have been paused this week as Iran held the massive funeral events for its former supreme leader, who was killed in the opening salvo of the war.
Mojtaba Khamenei, his 56-year-old son, was named his successor in March but has not appeared in public or even issued an audio statement since he assumed the highest post in the country.
Khamenei’s casket was displayed Tuesday in Qom, the Iranian seat of religious scholarship, and Iranian officials have said funeral events will take place Wednesday in Iraq, which is home to two of the holiest shrines for Shiites.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in the Iraqi city of Najaf for the funeral ceremonies, left for Tehran after the U.S. strikes on Iran, state media reported.
Taking the funeral across the border to Iraq will allow the Revolutionary Guard, the most powerful military, political and economic force in Iran, to highlight its regional prominence.