Middle East crisis live: Trump says memorandum of understanding with Iran is ‘over’ but talks can continue

Kuwait’s armed forces has issued an update on the Iranian attacks against the country this morning, saying it had intercepted two ballistic missiles and 13 drones that breached Kuwaiti airspace at dawn.

“The incident resulted in no material damage or casualties,” it added in a statement.

Oil prices have risen by more than 3% after fresh strikes from the US and Iran tested a fragile truce.

Brent crude climbed $2.49 to $76.65 a barrel, up 3.4%.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at the trading platform interactive investor, said: “Reports of an Iranian attack on a liquefied natural gas tanker in the strait of Hormuz was followed by retaliatory US strikes in the region, leading to a spike of more than 3% in oil prices.

“The US also reimposed crude oil sales sanctions on Iran, all of which casts real doubts on the longer-term outlook for peace in the Middle East.”

For more updates on the financial markets and world economy, you can follow our business live blog here:

Madrid is downplaying Trump’s renewed threat to cut all trade with Spain.

Spanish government sources said they were greeting the US president’s latest broadside calmly, adding: “Our country maintains an excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the US, and we have no intention of changing that.”

They also suggested people would do well to reflect on three things:

“One, that the US has a trade surplus with Spain (meaning it benefits more from this relationship than we do).

“Two, that the EU is a trading union in which no member state can be singled out (as the commission itself has emphasised on several occasions).

“And three, that economic ties are forged by private companies, not governments. The bilateral relationship between the US and Spain is beneficial for both countries, both in the commercial and defence spheres.”

And let’s remember that we’ve been here before. In March, Trump threatened to cut all trade with Spain after it refused the US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain to continue its attacks in Iran.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said at the time, adding that he had told the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to “cut off all dealings” with the European country.

The Spanish government has issued a statement in response to Donald Trump’s order to cut off trade with Spain, which the Spanish newspaper El País reported was prepared in case the US president attacked the country at the Nato summit.

The statement by the Spanish prime minister’s office said: “Spain receives these statements calmly and normally.

“Our country maintains an excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the US, and it is not our intention for that to change.”

It added: “Economic ties are forged by private companies, not governments. The bilateral relationship between the US and Spain is beneficial for both countries, both in the commercial and defence spheres.”

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja ⁠Kallas, said the new attacks by the US and Iran have complicated talks ⁠to ​end the war.

In a post on X, she said:

The exchanges of fire between the US and Iran further complicate already fraught talks to end the war. Iran’s attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait are unacceptable.

Under the memorandum, Tehran committed to reopening the strait of Hormuz. Its recent attacks on ships near the strait violate that commitment and threaten to disrupt the resumption of energy supplies. Freedom of navigation must be unimpeded.”

Trump repeats that he is “not happy with Nato because of what they did with Greenland” and its refusal to help with Iran.

He says he spoke to several countries who didn’t help.

But he particularly lashes out against Spain, saying he “does not want to do anything” with the country, as he instructs officials to “cut all trade with Spain”.

Spain is a terrible partner in Nato. They don’t participate, they don’t pay, I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits. We don’t want anything. Watch them come running back, oh, they will come running back.”

While he says he believes the interim agreement with Iran is “over”, Trump tells reporters at the Nato summit that negotiations with Tehran can continue.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate. They’re good people, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them [Iran].

Speaking at the Nato summit, Trump says the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran is “over” because “I do not want to deal with them any more, they are scum”.

They are sick people, they are vicious, violent people.”

He then adds:

As far as I am concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They are liars. … There is something wrong with them. They are cuckoo. As far as I am concerned, it is over.”

The Iranian foreign ministry said earlier that US attacks on Iran, plus other “violations” of the MoU, have rendered it “ineffective” (see post at 8:10).

Donald Trump is speaking alongside Nato secretary general Mark Rutte at the alliance summit in Ankara, Turkey.

He says they had “some great meetings” last night, particularly praising the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Speaking about the Nato summit, he says “something has been determined, and some haven’t frankly”. God knows what that means.

He briefly turns to Iran, he says they are “very dangerous” and “sick” for “shooting rockets at ships, and so we hit them very hard last night”.

He says the Iranians are “dirty players” who “go after everyone, probably including me”, as he calls them “scum”.

“They are evil people,” he says.

My colleague Jakub Krupa over on the Europe live blog is covering the Nato summit in Ankara, where Donald Trump is due to speak. You can follow the updates here:

While the volley of strikes continue in the Middle East, mourners are marching through the Iraqi city of Najaf for the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike on the first day of the war on 28 February.

It is part of a days-long funeral procession that began on Saturday in Tehran.

Reuters reported Najaf holds significance importance for Shia Muslims as the burial place of Imam Ali, the cousin of the prophet Muhammad. Khamenei’s coffin will be returned to Iran to be buried tomorrow at the Imam Reza shrine in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, where he was born, according to the Associated Press.

The IRGC said a member of its navy was killed this morning in a US drone attack in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Mahshahr, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The Iranian foreign ministry has accused the US and Israel of violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Tehran and Washington to end the war.

It said the “repeated” US attacks against Iran, Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions on Iranian oil exports, American interference in Tehran’s arrangements for the strait of Hormuz and Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon have rendered the MoU “ineffective”.

The ministry also warned other countries in the region to not allow their territory to be used by the US to launch attacks on Iran. This is likely a warning aimed at Bahrain and Kuwait, which the Iranian military has targeted in retaliatory strikes this morning.

In a statement carrried by Iran media, the ministry said:

The repeated illegal attacks against Iran, along with last night’s decision by the US Treasury to revoke the licence for the sale of Iranian oil – to which the US government is committed under Article 10 of the Memorandum of Understanding – the violation of Iranian arrangements in the strait of Hormuz, and the continuation of the Israeli regime’s military aggressions and terrorist acts against Lebanon, have rendered important and fundamental parts of the Memorandum of Understanding on the End of the War ineffective. The responsibility for the dangerous consequences of this escalation of tensions lies with the renegade American regime.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also strongly notes the international legal obligation of all states, especially neighbouring countries located on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, to prevent the aggressors from using their territory and facilities to carry out aggressive acts against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and emphasises that any cooperation in committing the crime of aggression against Iran constitutes complicity and participation in the crime.

The Kuwaiti foreign ministry has issued a statement, saying it expresses “condemnation and denunciation, in the strongest possible terms, of the repeated Iranian attacks” on its soil this morning.

In a statement on X, it added: “The continuation of these blatant attacks, at a time when regional and international efforts aimed at de-escalation are under way, constitutes a systematic undermining of these de-escalation efforts and flies in the face of the international will supporting this course of action.”

Iran said it had targeted American military sites in Kuwait in response to US attacks on its southern provinces.

Meanwhile, Iranian media report explosions in the south of the country in Bushehr, a port city along the Gulf coast.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said there were also reports of an attack on Kharg Island, a strip of land in the Gulf that handles about 90% of Iran’s oil exports.

News agencies report air raid sirens sounding in Bahrain for a third time this morning as Iran continues to launch attacks in the Gulf in retaliation against US strikes.

The Iranian army said it carried out drone strikes on US forces at Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain in response to Washington’s attacks on southern Iran.

“Following the hostile aggression by the American enemy against military and civilian areas in the south of the country and the violation of the 14-point memorandum, the attack drones of the Islamic Republic of Iran army, from dawn today, have attacked the concentrations of American hostile forces at the ‘Sheikh Isa Base’ in Bahrain,” the army said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

“This is the consequence of the blatant and repeated violation of the ceasefire by the criminal American government, and all US bases in the region will be legitimate targets for the army’s drones.”

Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted 85 US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Weeks after signing an interim MoU to end the war, the United States and Iran have struggled to maintain their fragile truce, with the fight over the control of the strait of Hormuz flaring again today.

The US on Wednesday launched fresh strikes against Iran in retaliation for what it said was Iranian strikes on three commercial vessels a day earlier.

Iran responded by targeting dozens of US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain. The country has sought to leverage its control of the strait, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military.

If you are just getting up to speed, here is the latest.

• The ⁠US military launched a series of strikes against Iran on Wednesday, ⁠US Central ⁠Command confirmed. A US official said those strikes targeted Iranian air defense systems, port facilities, coastal surveillance systems, ground-to-air missiles as well as launch sites for anti-ship cruise missiles and drones. This marks ⁠the first known US military strikes ​against ​Iran since late last ​month, when there were several ​days ‌of strikes and ​counterstrikes ​between the two.

• The US said the strikes were in response to Iranian attacks a day earlier on three commercial vessels that were ⁠transiting the strait of Hormuz. “Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of ‌the ceasefire,” a US military statement said.

• Prior to the attacks, the US also revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil with the US Treasury cancelling a license that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through 21 August. Some have described the move as a potentially major blow to the agreement.

• Iran responded by targeting dozens of US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, with sirens sounded in both countries. “In an initial response to this aggression, the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Force carried out a joint missile and drone operation, striking 85 key US military facilities” in the two countries, while also shooting down an MQ-9 drone, the statement said.

• Iran’s foreign ministry also lashed out against the US, vowing to “take whatever measures it deems necessary to safeguard its national interests and security”. The ministry accused the US of “treacherous action” and “major violations” of the MoU. “The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

• Referring to the US strikes, Iranian media said six projectiles hit the area of Taheroui pier in Sirik in southern Iran. No civilian deaths were reported, but several people were ⁠injured by shrapnel from an “enemy projectile” that hit a commercial pier in Sirik, according to an Iranian state TV reporter. The reports said strikes also hit fishing piers in Sirik and in Bandar Abbas, where several fishing boats were set ablaze.

• The benchmark US oil contract increased more than 2.5% when markets opened Wednesday, as Middle East tensions rose with new US attacks on Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude, one of the two major global benchmarks, was up 2.63% at $72.29 per barrel. It rose 2.76% on Tuesday.

• The ⁠new attacks by ⁠the US ⁠on Iran ​were “absolutely necessary”, Nato ⁠secretary general Mark Rutte said on ⁠Wednesday. When you ​have ‌a ‌ceasefire and Iran ‌is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is ‌totally crucial that the ​U.S. forcefully react,” Rutte told reporters before ⁠a summit ​of Nato leaders ​in Ankara.

The ⁠new attacks by ⁠the US ⁠on Iran ​were “absolutely necessary”, Nato ⁠secretary general Mark Rutte said on ⁠Wednesday.

When you ​have ‌a ‌ceasefire and Iran ‌is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is ‌totally crucial that the ​US forcefully react,” Rutte told reporters before ⁠a summit ​of Nato leaders ​in Ankara.