Trump Orders Resumption of U.S. Strikes on Iran After June Ceasefire MoU Collapses

President Trump ordered resumption of U.S. strikes against Iranian military and infrastructure targets in the past week after concluding that the memorandum of understanding signed on 17 June had collapsed. The Guardian reported that the decision restarted direct military action less than a month after the agreement at the Palace of Versailles.

The MoU had established a planned 60-day ceasefire during which negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program would occur. Under its terms Iran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief that included the right to sell oil internationally and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in assets. The war itself began on 28 February.

Before the conflict the Strait of Hormuz carried 20 percent of the world’s energy exports. Iran closed the waterway in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks, causing global oil prices to rise. Iran later fired on commercial vessels belonging to neighboring Gulf kingdoms after those vessels used a shipping lane near Oman under U.S.

Naval protection. The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was assassinated in the first hours of the war. His body passed through crowds in several Iranian cities during a week-long funeral and was buried in Mashhad.

Curt Mills, executive editor of The American Conservative, stated there is no timeline in which renewed fighting makes sense for preserving Republican midterm performance. He added that the escalation shows Trump does not really care about the midterms and appears driven by a personal vendetta with the Iranians.

Nate Swanson, former State Department and White House adviser on Iran, said his initial assessment was that the violence would prove another brief episode followed by return to the ceasefire.