A month-old ceasefire memorandum between the United States and Iran has collapsed into open hostilities, after a series of tit-for-tat strikes across the Persian Gulf region prompted US President Donald Trump to announce Wednesday that the truce is definitively “over.”
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a NATO leaders meeting, Trump made the declaration just hours after the US launched more than 80 pre-planned airstrikes targeting Iranian military assets across the region. Washington framed the strikes as a direct response to a series of Iranian attacks on commercial shipping vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz carried out Tuesday.
According to a formal statement from US defense officials, the overnight American strikes targeted a wide range of Iranian military infrastructure: Iran’s air defense networks, command and control communications hubs, coastal radar stations, anti-ship missile stockpiles, and more than 60 small fast attack boats operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite revolutionary military force. US officials said the operation was designed to permanently degrade Tehran’s capacity to target commercial shipping in the strategic waterway.
The Iranian attacks that preceded the US strikes targeted three commercial tankers near Omani waters, including a Qatari-owned liquefied natural gas carrier named the Al Rekayyat. UK Maritime Trade Operations, a UK-based security body that monitors global shipping activity, confirmed the LNG carrier was struck while it was en route to the Gulf of Oman.
Within hours of the US strikes, Tehran launched a massive retaliatory attack, sending waves of missiles and drones targeting US military installations stationed in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday. The IRGC confirmed it struck exactly 85 separate targets across the two Gulf nations. Local military and security officials confirmed the attacks: Kuwait’s armed forces activated their national air defense systems to intercept incoming projectiles, while Bahrain’s interior ministry triggered public air raid sirens and urged residents to seek emergency shelter.
In unusually harsh remarks Wednesday, Trump launched a blistering verbal attack on Iran’s political leadership, calling the ruling faction “scum” and dismissing any further negotiations as a waste of time. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,” Trump told reporters. “Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars… there’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.” The president added that while he would allow US negotiating teams to continue talks if they wish, he sees no path to a successful diplomatic outcome. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys,” he said. “They’re bad people, and 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.”
Qatar, which has served as a key neutral mediator between Washington and Tehran throughout the ceasefire talks, issued a sharp condemnation of Tuesday’s shipping attacks. Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, called the strikes on commercial vessels a “serious and explicit violation” of international law, and said Tehran would be held responsible for the act of aggression.
Tensions over shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz have been building for weeks. Oman has recently pushed a proposal to reroute international commercial shipping along a new corridor closer to its own coastline, a plan Iran has repeatedly rejected. Tehran has also threatened to impose a navigation toll on all commercial vessels accessing the waterway, and claims US efforts to advance the new shipping route already violate the terms of last month’s ceasefire memorandum.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, accused Washington of multiple “major” violations of the truce even before this week’s hostilities, citing US opposition to Tehran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz, unapproved Israeli military aggression in Lebanon, and the recent US move to reimpose full oil sanctions on Iran. In a post on the social platform X Wednesday, Ghalibaf pushed back against US pressure, writing: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Hours after Tuesday’s shipping attacks, the US formally revoked a temporary sanctions waiver that had allowed limited Iranian oil exports, another step that escalates the bilateral conflict. The original ceasefire memorandum signed last month launched a 60-day window for negotiations to reach a permanent truce and resolve longstanding international disagreements over Iran’s nuclear program. This week’s open hostilities bring that negotiating process to the brink of total collapse.