Donald Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran over on Wednesday in an astonishing tirade at the Nato summit in Ankara, branding Tehran’s leadership “scum” and threatening further strikes. “They launched a couple of drones and one missile at ships … and so we had them very hard last night. We'll probably hit them hard again tonight,” the US president said, sitting alongside Nato secretary general Mark Rutte. The outburst came after exchanges of fire overnight in which Iran was targeted at least 85 times in one of the most powerful US bombing runs of the war, hitting the key port of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm island and Sirik. Iranian state media reported injuries from shrapnel, and Tehran claimed it had attacked a US Navy headquarters and an air base in Kuwait. Trump said Washington had given Tehran permission for a week-long funeral for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, but “instead of that, they start shooting rockets and ships yesterday. So we hit them very hard last night.” He added: “They’re sick. There's something wrong with them … they’re evil people.” Asked about peace talks, Trump replied: “To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them any more.”
The summit, a two-day gathering of 32 alliance leaders in the Turkish capital, had been dominated by Trump’s erratic behaviour. Hours earlier, he had lambasted allies over defence spending and for not helping the US in attacking Iran, railed against Spain for failing to back him on Iran — saying he wanted to “cut all trade” with the Spanish — and renewed his demand for control of Greenland. But then, in a private meeting, he adopted a softer tone, telling allies “we want to remain with you”. “It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump said at a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where he made a surprise offer to license the manufacturing of Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine. He concluded with a rambling press conference that barely addressed Nato, praising Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, talking up the US economy and claiming he was “No 1 on TikTok”. Despite the shift, the final summit declaration affirmed the countries’ “ironclad commitment” to article 5 — the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all — but no date was announced for the next leaders’ summit, due in Albania, amid anti-Trump and anti-government protests there.
“Donald Trump declared the Iran ceasefire over and threatened further strikes at the Nato summit in Ankara, overshadowing alliance unity.”
The threat to global oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz now looms larger. Iran has threatened to put the waterway in an iron grip and attack neighbouring countries if Washington attacks again. One British intelligence analyst told the Daily Mirror that the latest strikes were “about five times bigger and more powerful than previous ones … it seems an escalation is underway. Despite Trump's belligerence he is rattled.” European leaders, who had feared the worst from Trump’s mood after a dinner at Erdoğan’s compound on Tuesday, will hail his renewed support for article 5 as a victory. But the overriding concern remains that such grandstanding risks giving hope to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and undermining deterrence.