{"id":643981,"date":"2026-08-18T17:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/643981\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:27:08","slug":"iran-threatens-new-offensive-while-trump-rules-out-extending-ceasefire-deal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/643981\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran threatens new offensive while Trump rules out extending ceasefire\u00a0deal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-states\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-states\/\">US<\/a> president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> said on Tuesday no talks were taking place with \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a> and none was scheduled, and he insisted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/strait-of-hormuz\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/strait-of-hormuz\/\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a> was open, contradicting an earlier Iranian assertion that the critical waterway remained shut to shipping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The receding prospects of a deal to end the nearly six-month conflict \u200bdrove up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/oil\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/oil\/\">oil<\/a> prices again on Tuesday, while stock markets sagged and borrowing costs for major economies including the US hit multi-decade highs, amid concerns about the long-term inflationary and fiscal impact of the crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A temporary ceasefire agreement expired on Monday and a senior Iranian official told Reuters his country was moving to a \u201cfully offensive\u201d military posture due to the diplomatic stalemate, though there were no reports of fresh strikes by either side on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere \u200bare no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and \u2060operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Monday, Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law and special envoy, had sounded an optimistic note, saying talks with \u200cIran were \u200cstill \u200bunder way and were \u201cprobably more robust\u201d than they had ever been.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Despite Trump\u2019s typically ebullient remarks about the situation in the Gulf, preliminary shipping data on Tuesday showed ship crossings via the Strait of Hormuz were still in single digits on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/middle-east\/2026\/08\/17\/donald-trump-says-iran-should-surrender-threatens-to-bomb-oman\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump says Iran should surrender, threatens to bomb OmanOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The United Kingdom Maritime Trade \u2060Operations said it received a report on Tuesday that a vessel was struck \u200bby an unknown projectile while transiting outbound in the Strait of Hormuz, causing engine room damage \u200band a crew casualty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The remaining crew were being assisted by the Omani coast guard, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Top Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in comments published by state media that \u200cthe strait would remain shut until the US met the conditions of \u200ban interim deal signed with Iran in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">These conditions include the US lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, lifting oil sanctions, releasing Tehran\u2019s frozen assets, and ending threats and \u2060military operations on all fronts, Ghalibaf told parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A memorandum of understanding signed on \u2060June 17th had set a 60-day time frame \u200bfor a broader deal on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and US sanctions. That period elapsed on Monday and Trump said he had no plans to extend it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The agreement, which declared the \u201cimmediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts\u201d, had quickly unravelled over a dispute about control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/lng\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/lng\/\">liquefied natural gas<\/a> flowed before the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Both Trump and Tehran have frequently switched between threats and more emollient rhetoric as they seek a way out of the crisis, which erupted when the US and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\">Israel<\/a> launched strikes against Iran on February 28th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Iran remains open to dialogue with the US but does not confuse negotiations with surrender, Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran\u2019s supreme leader, said on Tuesday, according to the semi-official \u200cFars news agency. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday no talks were taking place with \u200cIran and none was scheduled,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,18929,71,45036,11,12,47615,15,16,5,9951,168834,7,8,384,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-643981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-lng","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117117691811595570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}