Ceasefire Terminated After Iran Opens Fire in Strait, Trump Orders Huge Retaliation, Says ‘You Have to Cut Out Cancer’
President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the U.S. ceasefire with Iran is over after a series of attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
In fiery remarks delivered from a meeting of NATO leaders in Ankara, Turkey, Trump called Tehran’s leadership “scum” for the attacks and said that the fragile memorandum of understanding signed last month and brokered by Pakistan is effectively dead.
According to CBS News, Trump’s remarks came after a series of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s coast underscored his administration’s unhappiness with Iranian leadership over the attacks.
The U.S. also blocked Iran’s ability to sell oil on international markets legally, which was granted as part of the June 17 memorandum, CBS reported.
Trump’s announcement publicly put that agreement on ice.
“To me, I think it’s over,” Trump told reporters, according to Reuters.
“They’re scum. They’re sick people,” he added. “They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people.”
He added that he would speak to his negotiators, but that Iran’s attacks underscored the fact that the Islamist regime should be prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” he said.
Trump’s remarks, The Washington Post noted, “rais[ed] the prospect of major renewed hostilities.”
The strait had been opened to shipping traffic when the preliminary memorandum was signed last month, and even though there had been several isolated exchanges of strikes between the combatants since then, ending the ceasefire did not seem to be an option.
However, after the most recent strikes, U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday night that it had launched “an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The U.S. strikes hit Iranian air defense systems, command-and-control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile weapons and more than 60 small boats associated with the IRGC, Iran’s paramilitary force, the U.S. statement said. The effort is meant to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial shipping,” the Post reported.
Trump, in his remarks, called this a “20-to-1” response to Iran’s attacks.
It’s unclear whether this would affect other actions taken on Tuesday. The U.S. Treasury Department announcement blocking the sale of Iranian oil before Trump’s remarks, the U.S. Treasury Department gave Iran until July 17 to wind down transactions currently underway.
Regardless, Trump’s disgust toward Iran’s leadership were on full display.
“These are evil, sick people,” he said. “And we have to rid their cancer. And you know what you do? You’ve got to cut out cancer early. And that’s the way I feel.”
