Iran has abandoned peace negotiations in Switzerland, with the delegation from the Middle Eastern nation refusing to return to peace talks until US President Donald Trump apologises for what appeared to be a threat to assassinate Iran’s team of negotiators on Sunday (June 21).

According to Fox News, Trump said he told Iranian officials: “You close the strait and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your f****** country … we’ll take over the rest of the country.

“We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I’ll blow the s*** out of them.”

In a Truth Social post, the president wrote: “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”

Negotiators have taken the comments made by the 47th President of the United States as a direct assassination threat and, as a result, are refusing to re-engage in peace talks until Trump apologises for his tirade.

Iran has also stated that Israel must fully withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, in addition to Trump’s apology, to see the Gulf nation return to peace talks.

Trump’s verbal attack against Iranian officials comes after military officials from the Islamic Republic announced on Saturday (June 20) that Iran would, again, close the Strait of Hormuz due to violations of the tentative peace deal between the two nations.

Iranian officials have confirmed their delegation has walked away from peace talks in a statement shared on a state-backed Iranian news agency, Tasnim. Translated to English, the statement says: “The Iranian delegation has expressed its protest to the American side and is now reviewing an appropriate response to Donald Trump’s recent verbal threats”.

The statement added that “any form of threat is considered a serious violation” of the already fragile ceasefire agreement currently in effect between the US and Iran.

It was unclear which of Trump’s statements they were specifically referring to.

During a phone call on Sunday with Fox News’ Trey Yingst, Trump was told that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will maintain its right to enrich uranium.

Trump replied that “he better watch his mouth” and “he better shape up, or we’ll take over the rest of the country.”

The US President went on to describe the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran as “just an option”.

“I can do whatever I want after that option,” Trump added.

Prior to Iran’s withdrawal from peace talks in Geneva, US Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had met with senior Iranian officials alongside mediators from Qatar and Pakistan to discuss the finer details of the current peace agreement.

After initial talks on Sunday, Vance told the media that “great” progress had been made toward a future “where everyone can work together to promote peace and prosperity.”

Until protests came from Tehran following the US President’s latest comments, it would seem that Trump’s latest outburst now places the only days-old peace agreement under strain.