Donald Trump’s interim deal with Iran collapsed after less than a month, and the strikes returned across the region. The agreement had reopened the Strait of Hormuz on paper, but traffic there has since slowed to a trickle as the US and Iran moved back into direct attacks.
Trump had said in his November 2024 election night victory speech from Florida, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” Mohamad Bazzi, writing for, frames the fighting as a risk of another forever war in Iran. The latest exchange has already pushed oil above $90 a barrel and left shipping crews in the Gulf watching for the next strike.
Trump and the mid-June memo
In mid-June, the US and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding that included reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Trump called the memo something that “achieves everything we set out to accomplish,” and he announced the interim deal on social media with the line, “Ships of the World, start your engines,” Trump wrote on social media when he announced the interim deal last month. “Let the oil flow!”
The memo functioned as a 60-day extension of a ceasefire reached in early April. It also deferred the hardest issues — Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s role around Hormuz — to future talks, which is why the deal could hold only if both sides kept the pauses in place.
Airstrikes across the Middle East
Over the past 10 days, that pause broke down. The Pentagon has launched daily waves of airstrikes against Iranian command centers, missile and drone launch sites, air defense systems and communication networks, while the US bombed bridges across southern Iran in recent days.
Tehran retaliated with missile and drone strikes against US military bases across the Middle East and threatened to renew attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf neighbors. Iran also fired on oil tankers that passed through the Strait of Hormuz near the coastline of Oman, and Trump reimposed a blockade against Iranian shipping.
Hormuz and Jordan on Friday
The shipping route has been slowed to a trickle, and the price of oil passed $90 a barrel and reached its highest level in a month. Trump also threatened to destroy Iran’s power plants and other civilian infrastructure, widening the list of assets at risk if the exchanges continue.
On Friday, Iranian ballistic missiles struck an airbase in Jordan and killed two US military personnel. Future talks are supposed to address Iran’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz, but the fighting has already shown how fast the interim deal can unravel when the blockade and the retaliation cycle restart.
