U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker defended the U.S. military response to Iran following the latest attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, telling CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that Tehran's leadership is "a bunch of crazy people" while insisting President Donald Trump remains committed to reaching a nuclear agreement.

"President Trump's a peacemaker ... and he wants a deal with Iran," Whitaker said. "He wants to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon, that they join the world as a contributor and a normalized country. But right now it's, you know, as President Trump has said, and Marco Rubio has also stated, you know, this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people." 

Whitaker defended U.S. military strikes against Iranian targets, saying Tehran violated a memorandum of understanding governing commercial shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

"The memorandum of understanding with Iran was always performance-based, and one of the conditions was that Iran cannot terrorize commercial vessels transiting the strait," Whitaker said. "Now another ship was attacked, and so we hit 140 or more targets, and that's what they should expect."

His remarks came after Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz following an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a Cyprus-flagged container ship that Iranian officials said had used an "unauthorized route" through the waterway, The Hill reported.

U.S. Central Command said the vessel sustained significant damage to its engine room and that one crew member was missing following the attack.

In a statement, CENTCOM said, "Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the memorandum of understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed."