Trump: Ceasefire with Iranian scum is over

Donald Trump has declared that the ceasefire in Iran is over after a wave of new military strikes.

In the opening address at the Nato summit in Ankara, the US president called the Iranian leadership “sick people” and “scum”, threatening to cut them out like a “cancer”.

“I don’t want to deal with them any more... as far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” he told reporters on the fringes of the gathering in Ankara.

It is not clear if Mr Trump’s intervention will mean a return to war, or if it is part of a negotiating strategy to pressure Iran to loosen its control of the Strait of Hormuz.

His comments came after the US military traded tit-for-tat strikes with Iran late on Tuesday. The Pentagon said it was retaliating against the Islamic Republic’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran claimed to have responded with missile and drone strikes against dozens of US military facilities early on Wednesday.

Mr Trump’s intervention threatened to overshadow the annual meeting of Nato leaders, being held in the Turkish capital, which has already been hit by transatlantic tensions over his war against Iran.

Before the talks, the US president criticised allies for refusing to provide military support and failing to back his attempt to take over Greenland.

“I’m very upset with Nato,” he declared, singling out Spain, and suggesting he was prepared to cut off “all trade” and ban its leaders from visiting Washington over its criticism of the Iran war.

The start of the second day of the summit was delayed by at least half an hour as Mr Trump delivered his latest diatribe while sitting alongside Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary-general.

A portion of the talks had been reserved for discussion around how the alliance could support the US in brokering a permanent peace deal with Iran, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But Mr Trump’s comments suggested that could be made more difficult if fighting resumed.

Responding to what he described as an “interesting question” from a journalist about the state of US-Iran peace talks, he suggested there was no longer any point in engaging with “cuckoos”.

The US president accused Iran of being “dirty players” after it attacked tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

The strategically important waterway was expected to be reopened as part of a 60-day discussion between Washington and Tehran over a longer-term peace deal.

Mr Trump suggested he would allow JD Vance, his vice-president, to continue the talks, but cast doubt on whether they would end in an agreement and said his preferred option was to “do our business”.

He added: “Frankly, I don’t want to waste my time with them. Now, I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it. I don’t like these people.”

The US president also appeared riled by supporters of Iran’s regime calling for his death as they gathered for the funeral of Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, last weekend.

He said: “They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re vicious, violent people. We have to rid their cancer, their cancer. And you know what you do? You’ve got to cut out cancer early. And that’s the way I feel.”

The US president added that he was “number one” on Iranian hit lists, telling reporters: “They want to take out the US leader – me. I’m on every one of their lists. I guess so far I’ve been lucky.”

The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17, pausing fighting between the two countries and committing to a 60-day negotiating period to reach a final, lasting peace agreement.

But Iran has continued its attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that they were transiting the waterway without Iranian permission.

On Tuesday night, US Central Command said its forces had struck more than 80 targets, including Iranian air defence systems, coastal radar sites and 60 small boats from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Shortly before, the US Treasury said it had banned Iran from selling oil – one of the key components of the MoU.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]