By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk
ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to attack Iran again after saying an initial ceasefire deal with the Islamic Republic was “over”, though he has not made clear whether Washington would be returning to full-on war with Iran.
Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara, Trump slammed Iranian officials for what he described as not sticking to the deals they negotiated and warned that the United States will likely engage in additional strikes on Wednesday night after U.S. forces carried out attacks the previous day.
“I’ll give a little warning: We’re going to hit them hard tonight,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in Turkey before his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In earlier comments to reporters in Ankara, Trump said a memorandum of understanding that served as an initial ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran was “over”. His comments sent oil prices surging.
But he did not explicitly say Washington would return to full-fledged war or clarify if there would be further negotiations to turn the initial ceasefire deal into a permanent agreement.
He repeated his war aim that Tehran can never have a nuclear weapon but suggested that goal may need to be achieved without a deal.
“They’ll never build a nuclear weapon under our deal, but I don’t know if we’re going to have a deal. We may just do it without a deal, because you know what, it’s easier, because these people, what they lie and they cheat,” Trump said.
In a flare-up of hostilities that pushed oil prices up sharply, 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 renewed hostilities have also heightened safety and security concerns around the Strait of Hormuz, with shipping data showing at least four oil and gas tankers had turned back rather than try to transit the waterway, a vital supply route.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk in Ankara, Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Michelle Nichols)
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