Donald Trump has labelled Iran ‘a bunch of scum’ and declared that the ceasefire is ‘over’ after the US and Tehran exchanged strikes overnight.
In an extraordinary press conference at the NATO summit in Ankara, the US president renewed his attack against the Western alliance over Greenland, and threatened to cut off all trade with ‘terrible Spain‘.
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Spain, which has not agreed to NATO’s new defence spending target of 5 per cent of GDP and whose Socialist leadership refused to let the US use its airspace or bases on its territory for the Iran war.
‘Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t carry them,’ Trump told NATO chief Mark Rutte.
‘I don’t want to do any trade with them, alright?’ he said, turning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who replied: ‘Yes, sir.’
Trump also criticised the UK, which ‘would not let us use the island for two weeks,’ and said Italy was ‘very bad’, referring to a lack of support over his war with Iran.
He repeated his controversial demand to take control of Greenland, calling it ‘a big problem’.
He claimed the semi-autonomous Danish territory was ‘very important for the US, but it’s not important for Denmark’.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (L) and US President Donald Trump meet on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, on July 8
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, July 8
On Tuesday night, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it fired at more than 80 Iranian targets, including over 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats.
In retaliation, the Islamic Republic said it attacked US military sites based in Bahrain and Kuwait.
‘To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum,’ Trump told a reporter in answer to a question about the status of the memorandum of understanding.
‘They’re led by sick people. They’re vicious, violent people,’ the US president said, adding: ‘If they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators.’
Earlier, he accused the regime of ‘wanting to take out the US leader’, pointed at himself, and claimed he was on ‘every single one of their lists’.
He said Washington had given Tehran the greenlight to hold a funeral procession for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but ‘instead of that, they started shooting rockets at ships’.
‘And so we hit them very hard last night,’ he said. ‘I told them, every time you hit, we hit.’
World oil prices soared more than five per cent Wednesday after Trump said the ceasefire was over.
International benchmark Brent North Sea crude jumped 5.3 per cent to $78.09 a barrel, while the main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, advanced 5.4 per cent to $74.23 a barrel.
The US launched extensive strikes on Iran following attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a wave of reprisals against American bases in the Gulf.
The strategic shipping route remains a flashpoint in the conflict, which began in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Tehran insists on controlling the waterway, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorised route.
Its military has struck at least three ships in recent days, prompting an extensive US retaliation.
Both sides reported hitting dozens of targets, placing fresh strain on an interim deal to end their war and pushing oil prices to their highest level in two weeks.
Iranian state media on Wednesday reported a wave of explosions around the strait, including six on the island of Qeshm, seven in the city of Sirik and more in the major port city of Bandar Abbas.
It later also reported a series of blasts in the port city of Bushehr, which hosts the country’s only civilian nuclear power plant and lies near Kharg island, the main oil terminal through which 90 percent of the nation’s crude exports transit.
State media said a member of the military’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Iran’s southwest.
CENTCOM said its forces had struck Iranian air defence systems, coastal radar sites and 60 IRGC small boats.
The strikes aimed ‘to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor’, it said.
Tehran’s reply came quickly, with the Guards saying they hit dozens of US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain, where an AFP journalist heard blasts.
Early on Wednesday, Bahrain’s interior ministry and the Kuwaiti army both reported their air defence systems were triggered, but did not offer details of any possible damage.
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the United States of ‘major’ breaches of their memorandum of understanding, including by reinstating oil sanctions and ‘violating Iranian adjustments in the strait’.
Washington revoked sanction waivers on Iranian oil sales, raising pressure on Tehran as it negotiates over a final settlement to the conflict.
The US Treasury Department cancelled a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
‘Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences,’ a US official told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US-Iran memorandum of understanding was ‘entirely performance-based’, warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed ‘good behaviour’.
Smoke rises at an unknown location following what U.S. Central Command says is a new wave of strikes against Iran on Tuesday after three tankers were hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, in this still image taken from video released July 7
British maritime security agency UKMTO said Tuesday an ‘unknown projectile’ hit a tanker near Hormuz, causing a fire, before two more vessels were struck, at least one by a drone.
CENTCOM identified the ships as the Marshall Islands-flagged Al Rekayyat, the Saudi Arabia-flagged Wedyan and the Liberia-flagged Cyprus Prosperity.
All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline – an initiative opposed by Iran as it seeks to impose fees on ships using the narrow waterway.
The Al-Rekayyat is Qatari, and Doha denounced the ‘unacceptable’ attack on international maritime navigation and summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador to lodge a complaint.
Iran voiced ‘dismay’ over Qatar’s accusations in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA, calling the claims ‘unacceptable’.
‘We are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored,’ Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King’s College London, told AFP.
‘Iran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted.’
Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.
Under the 14-point US-Iran memorandum, Iran and Oman, which border Hormuz, must hold talks ‘to define the future administration and maritime services’ in the waterway with other Gulf states.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login