Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature on a memorandum of understanding is worthless [1].
The statement signals a collapse in diplomatic trust between Tehran and Washington, raising the risk of further escalation as the U.S. continues military operations.
In a statement released from Tehran on Saturday, July 18, Khamenei said the signature of the U.S. president has no credibility [1, 3]. He said this lack of value is due to repeated U.S. breaches of the Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding [1, 3].
Khamenei linked the failure of the agreement to ongoing military strikes conducted by the United States [1, 2]. He said that if the U.S. continues its attacks, it should expect unforgettable lessons [2].
"Trump's signature is worthless," Khamenei said [1].
The Supreme Leader said that the U.S. is actively pushing for war and accepting higher costs to do so [2]. He said that such actions would result in consequences from Iran and its allies [2].
"Repeated U.S. breaches of a memorandum of understanding show Trump's signature is worthless," Khamenei said [3].
The rhetoric comes amid a period of heightened tension where diplomatic frameworks have failed to prevent kinetic conflict. Khamenei's comments reflect a broader Iranian narrative that U.S. diplomatic commitments are unreliable regardless of the administration's stated goals, a stance that complicates any potential for future negotiated settlements.
“"Trump's signature is worthless."”
The dismissal of a signed memorandum as 'worthless' indicates that Iran no longer views formal diplomatic agreements with the U.S. as a viable mechanism for conflict avoidance. By framing the U.S. as a bad-faith actor that breaches its own signatures, Tehran is justifying a shift toward more aggressive deterrence and reliance on its regional allies to counter U.S. military strikes.
