The Wall Street Journal has published a report by Vera Bergengruen, Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman and Costas Paris detailing the events inside the White House that led President Donald Trump to turn against the agreement with Iran.
According to the report, Trump was preparing to leave the White House for Turkey on Monday evening when his senior national security advisers entered the Oval Office carrying reports of new Iranian attacks.
Sources familiar with the discussions said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth informed Trump that Iran had launched anti-ship cruise missiles and attack drones against vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz via a southern route.
They told the president that three vessels had been hit within a matter of hours, including a liquefied natural gas tanker.
The attacks angered Trump, who asked his advisers whether they believed Iran was genuinely serious about reaching a final agreement. After consulting his senior aides, the president ultimately concluded that the Iranian side was not serious.
Trump Withdraws the Remaining Incentives
The unexpected attacks triggered a sharp response from Trump. He withdrew some of the remaining incentives included in the agreement, largely stripping the peace framework of its substance just two weeks after he had signed it to warm applause at the Palace of Versailles in France.
The president revoked Iran’s authorisation to sell oil.
Trump also ordered several rounds of strikes against Iranian targets inside and around the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and Wednesday. He further threatened to strike civilian infrastructure across the country, including desalination plants that supply drinking water.
Meanwhile, an Iranian diplomat said on Wednesday that the United States had violated the peace agreement by establishing a shipping corridor without coordination with Tehran. According to the diplomat, this justified the Islamic Republic’s decision to open fire on maritime traffic.
The sudden breakdown has left the fate of the ceasefire framework deeply uncertain, with foreign leaders attempting to determine whether Trump’s announcement signals a return to full-scale war or another violent escalation that may eventually lead both sides back to negotiations.
As Gulf allies prepared for further retaliation, energy markets braced for another economic shock, while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz once again faced serious disruption.
Speaking about the ceasefire agreement during the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump said: “As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them… They’re liars, cheaters and sick.”
US Strikes Intensify
On Wednesday evening, after Hegseth suggested that the United States would strike Iran “harder and deeper”, the US military announced that it had carried out a second round of strikes aimed at “further degrading its ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
A US official said Iran had chosen “the path of violence” and would face the consequences.
The developments represented a sharp turning point for Trump, who had spent weeks presenting the memorandum he signed with Iran in mid-June as evidence of the success of his pressure campaign.
The timing of the Iranian attacks particularly angered Trump. He had previously said that he had granted Iran “a one-week window” for negotiations to coincide with the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US strike in February.
“Instead, they started firing missiles at ships,” Trump said in Ankara.
Vice President JD Vance delivered a similar warning in Milwaukee on Wednesday: “It’s very simple. If they shoot at ships, we’re going to hit them with an overwhelming and devastating blow.”
Oil prices jumped by more than 6 per cent after Trump declared the ceasefire over, highlighting how quickly renewed fighting around the Strait of Hormuz could trigger the economic shock he had sought to avoid since the war began in February.
The Flaws in the Temporary Peace Agreement
The confrontation exposed fundamental weaknesses in the temporary peace agreement, whose terms had been drafted in broad and ambiguous language.
While the agreement promised to guarantee freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, it left unresolved critical questions over who would control the shipping route, coordinate maritime traffic and enforce security.
The agreement began to unravel on Sunday, when vessels approaching the southern route received a radio warning from Iranian operators.
According to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the message said: “This route is not safe. You are in danger. Our missiles and drones are ready to fire on you.”
Shortly afterwards, Iranian forces fired missiles at three commercial vessels. Among them was a Qatari tanker that suffered a fire in its engine room, forcing the crew to evacuate.
The Secret US-Assisted Shipping Route
For weeks, the US military had been working to preserve one of the agreement’s central objectives: moving commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried 20 per cent of global oil supplies before the conflict began.
Officials said the US Navy had been quietly assisting vessels through the southern route of the Strait, which runs alongside the coast of Oman.
US Navy data indicates that more than 125 vessels had crossed the Strait using this method. Most of these passages took place at night.
The vessels would switch off their Automatic Identification Systems, while a US destroyer maintained direct radio contact with the ship’s bridge and the vessel owner’s operations centre.
American assistance to commercial vessels angered Tehran, which had been urging ships to use the northern route along Iran’s southern coastline while warning that the southern route was mined.
Officials also said that Iran had been launching drones from its coastline for weeks towards commercial vessels attempting to use the southern route.
On Tuesday, four European-owned supertankers attempting to cross through the middle of the Strait received warnings from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that they would be attacked. The threats forced the vessels to turn back.
Although Trump has not ordered the reimposition of the naval blockade, US officials said American warships remain in position in case he decides to do so.
“We may put it back on,” Trump said on Wednesday.
Warning of a Dangerous Escalation
The report also cited Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was in Ankara for the NATO summit.
Shaheen described Trump’s declaration that the ceasefire was over as a “dangerous escalation”.
“The potential collapse of this memorandum of understanding is clear evidence that the president entered this war without a plan, without a vision for the endgame, and without the ability to reach a lasting agreement,” she said.
