US not seeking to extend interim memorandum with Iran: Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Aug. 17, 2026. (Reuters Photo)


U.S. President ⁠Donald ⁠Trump ​said on ​Monday that ⁠Washington was ⁠not ⁠seeking to extend the memorandum ⁠of ​understanding (MoU) ​with ⁠Iran.

Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News on Monday that Iran "should put up the white flag of surrender."

Monday marked the day by which Iran and the United States were expected to reach a final deal under a memorandum of understanding agreed in June and aimed at ending the war.

Signed on June 17, the MoU set a 60-day timeframe for Washington and Tehran to reach a broader deal on Tehran's nuclear program and U.S. sanctions.

That interim deal, which declared the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts," quickly unravelled, however, due to a dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.

Tehran said point 5 of the MoU gave it the right to manage the strait, which it shares with Oman, while Washington rejected that interpretation.

Hostilities resumed as Tehran began firing on vessels it ⁠said ⁠were trying to sail through Hormuz on an unapproved route, and Trump said on July 7 that the pact was "over."

Earlier on Monday, Trump also vowed to hit Oman.

Iran and Oman have separately been negotiating an agreement over the management of the Strait of Hormuz.

"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s**t out of them," Trump told Fox.

Tehran, meanwhile, has decided to shift its ​policy from defensive to "fully offensive" due to the deadlock in efforts to agree a permanent end to its war with the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday.