Despite months-long efforts to negotiate, President Donald Trump said he thinks the ceasefire with Iran is over after the United States struck over 80 Iranian military targets and air defense systems, prompting Iran to strike several U.S. bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Earlier this week, Iran attacked several U.S. commercial ships in and near the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the Trump administration to almost immediately revoke a waiver permitting the sale of Iranian oil—a major provision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which also acts as a temporary peace agreement signed by the two countries earlier this month.
President Trump told reporters at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Turkey this week that he now thinks the MOU is over.
"To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them,” Trump said. “They’re scum. They’re sick people.”
The apparent collapse of the agreement comes as other countries try to negotiate with Iran at the NATO summit, while U.S. officials are scheduled to hold final negotiations with Iranian leaders next week.
At the same time, opposition to the conflict is growing in Washington, D.C., with both chambers of Congress having passed resolutions urging the president to end military hostilities against Iran in the last month.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” Trump said. “They’re liars… There’s something wrong with them.”
A central concern in the U.S.-Iran conflict is Iran's nuclear capabilities. Amid longstanding concerns about Iran's lack of transparency over its nuclear program and the latest military escalations, Trump said he believes that "if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it."
In the days leading up to the latest attacks, millions of Iranians filled the streets to mourn former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
The final negotiations next week were meant to focus on reopening the strait and confirming the termination of Iran's nuclear program, but Trump is not the only leader who seems resistant to continuing the agreement.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
