The US and Iran released the text of an interim agreement to end their war on Wednesday, June 17, with US President Donald Trump threatening to resume attacks and kill Iranian officials if they failed to honor their commitments.
Trump, attending the G7 with other leaders in France, also withdrew at least one of his stated rationales for attacking Iran in the first place, saying it would be “unfair” for Tehran not to have ballistic missiles, having previously vowed to obliterate them.
“We’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement,” Trump said of Iran at a press conference. “I don’t want them to. I want them to honor the agreement.” He also called Iranians “smart people” as US and Iranian negotiators work on a permanent truce over the coming 60 days.
Earlier, he had said: “If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?”
The United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, assassinating the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top military officials on the very first day. It then spiraled into a broader regional conflict that has driven up energy prices, renewed inflationary pressures and sparked concerns about a major food supply crisis in developing countries.
