President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran “over,” announcing he would no longer deal with the regime after it resumed attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding signed with Iran to end the conflict was “over”, adding he didn’t want to engage with Tehran,” Reuters reported Wednesday morning. “Trump was speaking in Ankara ahead of a NATO summit in the Turkish capital.”
Speaking Wednesday morning, President Trump leveled one of his sharpest criticisms yet against Iran’s ruling Mullahs, calling them “dirty players” and “evil people” for violating the ceasefire agreed five weeks ago.
“They’re cuckoo as far as I’m concerned,” he continued.
While the U.S. was willing to offer a respite in the wake of Ayatullah Khamenei’s funeral, Tehran decided to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the president observed.
“They’re sick. There’s something wrong with them,” the president said. “We said ‘Go and do your funeral stuff’, and instead of that, they start shooting rockets and ships yesterday. So we hit them very hard last night.”
President Trump’s remarks come a day after Iran attacked three ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. The attack came amid calls for “revenge” against the U.S. and its allies during the ongoing funeral ceremony for Khamenei, with regime loyalists calling for the assassination of President Trump and senior members of his administration.
Later in the day, President Trump warned that if Iranian aggression continues, the U.S. Military was prepared to ‘hit them hard,’ and there’s ‘not a thing’ Tehran could do to stop it, hinting at the country’s depleted air defenses.
“We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight. I’ll give them a little warning,” he said.
The U.S. retaliated by hitting regime targets in southern Iran, including Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export and storage hub. Citing Iranian media reports, UK daily Independent claimed “explosions in Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island, on Qeshm Island and in the southern port cities of Sirik and Bandar Abbas.”
According to Central Command (CENTCOM), the U.S. “forces completed a new round of offensive strikes against Iran, July 7, hitting over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
They “struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” the CENTCOM added.
Following Iranian attack, the United Nations’ maritime agency warned ships not to use the strait. “Ships should avoid travelling through the Strait of Hormuz due to the “volatile” situation in the area, the head of the International Maritime Organisation has said,” the Sky News (UK) reported Wednesday.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY