President Donald Trump on Monday downplayed the significance of the memorandum of understanding his administration signed with Iran last month, describing it as a test Tehran failed to honor, as the ceasefire between the two countries continued to collapse.
Speaking on a radio program, Trump said he had wanted to skip the memorandum stage entirely and move straight to a full deal, but treated the interim accord as a kind of trial that Iran ultimately did not respect. He said memoranda of understanding generally carry little weight regardless of who is on the other side of the table, whether adversaries or allies.
The comments mark a shift from Trump’s earlier characterization of the memorandum, which he had once described as covering everything Washington wanted to achieve, including ending the conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He told reporters separately that the US would ultimately take control of the strait and claimed the conflict was moving quickly, despite having missed several of his own earlier predicted end dates for the war.
The remarks come as the ceasefire, which had set a 60-day window for negotiating more complex nuclear issues, appears to be unraveling, with both sides having resumed strikes in recent days.
