SINGAPORE: At first glance, United States President Donald Trump has dealt a death knell to the ceasefire in the Middle East when he said on Wednesday (Jul 8) that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with Iran just three weeks ago was “over”.

But much like Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei did when he said he approved the peace accord despite having a “different opinion”, Mr Trump did not slam the door shut.

Even as he denounced Iran’s current leaders as “scum”, “liars” and “sick people”, Mr Trump held out the possibility that his negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would continue talking to their Iranian counterparts. In doing so, he has absolved himself of responsibility for further talks and set Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner up as potential fall guys.

The US Treasury earlier on Tuesday reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil as the US launched a wave of military strikes on Iran in response to attacks on tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz through Omani rather than Iranian territorial waters.

But the US Treasury stopped short of reviving the US blockade of Iranian ports. So did Mr Trump until late on Wednesday when he told reporters that he may reimpose a naval blockade of Iranian ports while warning that the US could launch new strikes on Iran.

Reimposing the naval blockade would complicate past successful Iranian efforts to circumvent the sanctions.

AN INEVITABLE BREAKDOWN IN TALKS

A breakdown in US-Iranian negotiations was almost inevitable as both parties interpreted the MOU differently.

Iran reads the first half of the memorandum’s Article 5 stipulation that it “make arrangements … for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days” as confirmation of its legitimate control of the strait. That is why Iran sees US encouragement of shipping through Omani waters as an effort to deprive it of its greatest asset in the negotiations and most effective tool to deter future attacks.

Iran has, so far, refrained from acting on the second half of Article 5 that obliges it to...