The United States’ ceasefire with Iran is “over”, said US President Donald Trump on Wednesday after American and Iranian forces exchanged fire following attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I do not want to deal with them any more,” Trump said at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Turkish capital, Ankara. “They are scum.”
He added: “As far as I am concerned, it’s over.”
The interim ceasefire agreement signed between Washington and Tehran – under the mediation of Pakistan – was intended to provide a 60-day window for negotiations on a permanent agreement, but indirect talks in Qatar ended with no sign of headway, Reuters reported.
Indian benchmark Sensex fell by 1,000 points within 30 minutes after Trump’s remarks. At the time of closing, the Sensex and Nifty were down by 2.1%.
The US president made the statement after America launched strikes on Iran in response to Tehran’s alleged attacks a day earlier on three liquefied natural gas and crude oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
After the strikes, the US Central Command said that “unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation”.
It added that its forces were prepared to hold Iran accountable for violating the agreement.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused the US of violating the ceasefire and said that it targeted 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response.
MB Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, said that the US strikes had violated the peace agreement.
Qatar, among the countries mediating an end to the conflict, said that targeting of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz was an “unacceptable attack” on the safety of international maritime navigation, the security of global energy supplies and an “explicit violation” of international law.
One of the tankers that was attacked was Qatari.
On Wednesday, Trump said that he would speak to businessman-turned-negotiator Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have been involved in talks with Iran, but insisted it was up to Tehran to return to negotiations, AFP reported.
Trump also accused Iran of repeatedly misrepresenting the terms of the ceasefire signed on June 17.
“Everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapon,” Trump was quoted as saying. “We make a deal. They go outside, joke to the press, they say we never even talked about it…they’re cuckoo.”
After the US strikes, the price of benchmark Brent crude jumped 2.6% on Wednesday. It was trading at $76 per barrel.
The price had climbed as high as $114 per barrel on May 4 amid the war in West Asia. The price of Brent crude was $78 per barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started, and fell to its pre-war level after an interim peace deal between Iran and the US was announced.
Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Sneha.
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