President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire agreement with Iran finished on Wednesday, telling reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara that Tehran had wasted everyone’s time and proven itself incapable of honoring any deal. The declaration came hours after US Central Command struck more than 80 Iranian targets overnight, retaliating for Iranian strikes on three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
“To me, I think it’s over,” Trump said when a reporter asked whether the ceasefire, and the memorandum of understanding behind it, was dead. He did not soften the assessment. “I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. They’re vicious, violent people. If they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
The memorandum of understanding (MOU), a 14-page document signed last month between Washington and Tehran under Pakistani mediation, was designed to extend a fragile ceasefire and open a 60-day window for negotiating a permanent settlement “on all fronts.” It included a US Treasury license, issued on June 22, that permits Iran to sell crude oil and petrochemical products through August 21. Indirect talks held in Qatar under that window collapsed last week without progress. On Tuesday, the Treasury revoked the oil license in its entirety, giving Iran until July 17 to unwind any remaining transactions.
Trump’s language on Wednesday reflected a man who had extended the negotiating window and watched it exploited. “We make a deal. If I make a deal with him,” he said, gesturing at NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, “we have a deal. He goes out, he talks. We make a deal, everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapon. They go outside, talk to the press, they say ‘we never even talked about it.’ There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo.”
The overnight strikes targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats, air defense systems, coastal surveillance installations, and missile and drone launch sites in southern Iran, according to CENTCOM, which said the operation was meant to impose “heavy costs” on a regime that had attacked commercial shipping crewed by civilians in an international waterway. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed retaliatory strikes on US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Rutte backed the American response without hesitation. “When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react,” he told reporters, calling the strikes “absolutely necessary.” Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf inverted the accusation, claiming it was Washington that broke the truce.
Gulf states did not extend Iran the benefit of the doubt. Dr. Anwar Gargash, senior diplomatic advisor to the president of the UAE, wrote on X that the strikes on Qatari and Saudi tankers and the repeated aggression against Bahrain and Kuwait showed that Tehran remains unable to commit to de-escalation. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry issued its own statement condemning what it called “repeated heinous Iranian aggressions,” warning that continued attacks undermine the entire international effort at reducing tensions, and affirming Kuwait’s right to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty.
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten struck a more cautious note, arguing that Iran must be shown that ceasefire violations carry consequences while diplomatic pressure continues in parallel. Trump was not interested in that balance on Wednesday. Asked if talks could resume, he said negotiators were welcome to try. “I don’t care, they can talk. But I think they’re wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys.”
Smooth words and a drawn sword have described Iran’s approach to every negotiation since the regime’s founding. On Wednesday in Ankara, an American president said so out loud, and backed it with more than 80 strikes to prove he meant it.
