Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 8 Jul
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that the ceasefire with Iran is “over” and that he “doesn’t want to deal with them anymore, they’re scum”.
Trump was speaking to reporters from a Nato summit in Ankara, as the fallout from his war with Iran overshadowed the key gathering in the capital of Turkey.
With tensions peaking after an overnight flare-up between US and Iranian forces, Trump declared the Iran ceasefire was “over”.
Trump says the ceasefire between U.S. and Iran is over.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 8, 2026
"To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore; they're scum", the U.S. president says.
Live updates: https://t.co/l9KwsXPz0p pic.twitter.com/mqfE5qKOHe
“I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” said Trump.
He added: “They’re scum, they’re sick people, they’re led by sick people, and they are vicious violent people and if they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it.”
While Trump said his negotiators are “good people who want to negotiate”, he added: “But they have to come back to me; as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of them dealing with them, they’re liars.”
Trump then took aim at Nato allies who failed to back his campaign against Tehran.
And he insisted he still wanted Greenland, calling European resistance to his stance a “big problem”.
“I’m very upset with Nato… because of what they did with Greenland, and… because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran,” he said.
“Greenland is a big problem for us, we need it for protection of the world, not just the United States… It doesn’t help Denmark, but it helps us.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had earlier issued a terse response to Trump’s remarks a day earlier, saying: “Greenland is, of course, not for sale.”
Trump later said that he did not believe an agreement between the US and Iran was possible, calling the Iranian government “evil people”.
“My whole life is deals. I don’t see it. I don’t see it with them,” he said during a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy this afternoon.
Trump also said that a “big attack” against Iran was likely to come from the US tonight and that it may reimpose its blockade of Iranian ports.
“We may put it back, the blockade,” he said, while also suggesting the US could destroy civilian infrastructure, including power plants, bridges and desalination plants.
“They really deserve it,” he said.
“They’re evil people, they’re sick people, they’re mentally disturbed people.”
US forces earlier said they had launched “over 80” strikes on Iranian targets in response to Iran’s targeting of tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said it had retaliated with strikes against Bahrain and Kuwait.
The attacks came just hours after Washington also pulled Tehran’s licence to sell oil, which was only issued last month following an interim ceasefire deal.
The strategic waterway remains a flashpoint in the fragile truce, having sparked a previous exchange of fire between the two sides after a cargo ship was struck, threatening the agreement aimed at ending the war.
In a statement on X early on Wednesday, the American military said: “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces completed a new round of offensive strikes against Iran, 7 July, hitting over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
The statement said that US forces struck Iranian air defence 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.
CENTCOM said the strikes came after Iran “recently attacked three commercial vessels transiting the strait”.
The UN International Maritime Organisation said that the strikes on three civilian vessels in the strait on Tuesday were the most in a single day since late April.
In response, maritime authorities raised the threat level from “substantial” to “severe”.
Meanwhile, CENTCOM said the “unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces” marked a “clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation”, adding: “CENTCOM forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed.”
Bahrain, which plays home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait – where US Army personnel are based – sounded missile alerts early on Wednesday.
A statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirming strikes on military sites in their neighbouring countries said the “child-killing and terrorist U.S. army” had “openly violated the ceasefire” with attacks on coastal bases and civilian stations.
Following the US strikes, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of committing “major” violations of the initial ceasefire deal between the two parties, known as the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.
In a post on X, he said the violations included “Persistent threats of further strikes”, “Reinstating oil sanctions” and “Attacks on southern Iran”.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold,” Ghalibaf said.
The renewed hostilities threaten to again disrupt shipping transiting the Gulf channel and cause difficulties in securing a permanent end to the conflict, launched by the US and Israel on 28 February.
- © AFP 2026 and with additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say