American and Iranian leaders exchanged threats Saturday as the provisional agreement to end the war collapsed under crossfire in the Middle East and efforts to hold talks continued.
President Donald Trump threatened on social media overnight with new missile attacks against Iran, after the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for the assassination of the American leader. Senior US officials demanded that Iran make a public statement saying that Strait of Hormuz is open and ships will not be attacked.
Later, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei He vowed that the Iranians would continue to avenge his father’s death. That revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” he said in statements broadcast on state television. He has yet to be seen publicly since the war began on February 28 with attacks that killed his father.
Tehran has insisted that the strait remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships passing through it, a stance it adopted after the war began.
The exchange of threats continued Days of US airstrikes against Irancaused by Iran attacks three ships in the strait, and Iranian retaliatory fire against Arab nations in the region.
Trump declared an end to the ceasefire but said the United States would continue negotiations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Oman, across the strait, on Saturday for further talks, a day after Qatari mediators met officials in Tehran.
Trump says he responded to threats to kill him
One thousand “missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to follow immediately, should the Iranian government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on his website.
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He said he was responding to threats to “murder him or attempt to murder him.” During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held signs or banners calling for Trump to be assassinated along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran buried Khamenei, 86, this week.
Trump added that the US military “will decimate and completely destroy all areas of Iran. PRAISE GOD!”
Trump has repeatedly invoked the name of God in Arabic and threatened to destroy Iran’s own civilization. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, has criticized Trump’s “deranged mockery of Islam.”
Iran accuses Washington of violating the interim agreement
Iran’s foreign minister accused the United States of violating the interim agreement by ending waivers that allowed Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. Washington ended them in response to attacks on ships in the strait.
“Reality check: there can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote in X.
He was scheduled to meet his counterpart in Oman. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his country’s state broadcaster TRT that he believed “a solution can be reached” this weekend between Iran and Oman.
The United States is urging sailors to cross the strait via a southerly route through Oman’s territorial waters. Iran has said the strait should be under its exclusive control and that ships should start paying fees to Tehran. The world has considered it an international waterway for decades.
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through there before the war began. However, Iran’s control over the strait during the war caused a global energy crisis. Oil prices have fallen sharply. from wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
Tehran’s diplomat to the United Nations said Friday that any activity in the strait, including opening or demining operations, “lies exclusively with Iran.”
US officials accuse hardliners of trying to sabotage deal
U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iransaid the resumption of attacks this week came after what they described as a hardline Iranian rebel faction tried to sabotage the ceasefire.
However, Iran has insisted that its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.
After the United States concluded its latest strikes on Thursday, more strikes were reported to have hit Iran, raising questions about who else might be targeting the Islamic Republic.
Israel did not claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have released them, probably as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. On Thursday, Iran retaliated for the US attacks by attacking Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.
Attacks in Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said.
US says nuclear deal will require Iran to hand over enriched uranium
U.S. officials told reporters that the United States would never reach a nuclear deal with Iran if it does not first stop its attacks on ships in the strait.
They also said that any deal on Iran’s nuclear program would require Tehran to hand over its highly enriched uranium reserves. That is something Iran has repeatedly refused to do.
If the United States does not reach a deal with Iran to deliver the material, it has military options to ensure it remains buried underground forever, officials said. They did not detail them.
The uranium, enriched to near weapons-grade levels, is believed to be at nuclear sites that the United States bombed in 2025. Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, although the International Atomic Energy Agency has said the Islamic Republic is the only country in the world to enrich that much uranium without a weapons program.
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