Donald Trump says ceasefire ‘is over’ with ‘sick’ Iranians as strikes ’20 times tougher’
US President Donald Trump has slammed Iran as “sick” as he claimed the ceasefire is now over with US military striking the county with attacks that are “20 times tougher” than before
Donald Trump has claimed the ceasefire is over with Iran and says he “I don’t want to deal with them anymore” The US President spoke to reporters in a meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte in Ankara as he branded the Iranians as “sick”.
When asked about Iran, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators, they want to negotiate.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.”
Trump added that they are now striking Iran with US military strikes “20 times tougher”. He said: “They’re sick. There’s something wrong with them.
“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.”
The US launched strikes on Iran early Wednesday (July 8), hours after it revoked a licence authorising the sale of Iranian oil in retaliation for what it said were Tehran’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran hit back with strikes on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The attacks on shipping threatened efforts to resume fuel shipments in the strait that are crucial to the global economy.
The crossfire came during the days-long funeral for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in the war’s first moments.
The funeral, which ends Thursday, was supposed to be a period of lower tensions — though mourners have repeatedly called for the killings of Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Negotiations to reach a final deal had been due to start after Mr Khamenei’s burial and focus on the toughest matters, including fully reopening the strait and rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme. However, the new attacks threw that into question.
The US military’s Central Command said American forces launched the strikes “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway”.
It said it hit Iranian targets including air defence systems, radars and over 60 small boats used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Those boats have been key in harassing ships in the strait.
The US military remains “postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed”, it added, saying this round of attacks had ended.
Iran acknowledged the strikes, but offered no word on any losses.
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