July 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said an interim agreement to end the war with Iran was “over” on Wednesday after Tehran carried out new attacks on U.S. bases in the Gulf.
In a flare-up of hostilities that pushed oil prices up to a two-week high, Iran said it had targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait after U.S. forces struck Iranian targets in response to attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The attacks further undermined efforts to turn the interim ceasefire agreement that was reached last month into a permanent peace deal to end the war, which began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28.
Asked before a NATO summit in Turkey whether the memorandum of understanding reached last month was over, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them.”
“They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people,” he told reporters in Ankara. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.”
(Reporting by a Reuters team in Tehran and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Alex Richardson)
