Cambodia said it is shutting its border crossings with Thailand as heavy clashes broke out between the two forces on Saturday.
The crossings will be closed until further notice, Cambodia’s interior ministry said, shortly after US president Donald Trump earlier claimed the two southeast Asian countries had agreed to a ceasefire.
Acting as a mediator, Mr Trump declared that he had secured an agreement from both countries confirming a new ceasefire but the officials said they did not agree to it.
The fighting raged on Saturday morning along the border of Thailand and Cambodia.
Cambodia has not commented directly on Mr Trump’s claim, but its defence ministry said Thai jets carried out airstrikes on Saturday morning.
Thai foreign minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said on Saturday that some of Mr Trump's remarks didn't “reflect an accurate understanding of the situation”.
He said Trump’s characterisation of a land mine explosion that wounded Thai soldiers as a “roadside accident” was inaccurate, and did not reflect Thailand's position that it was a deliberate act of aggression.
Mr Sihasak said Mr Trump’s willingness to credit what may be “information from sources that deliberately distorted the facts” instead of believing Thailand hurt the feelings of the Thai people “because we consider ourselves – we are proud, in fact – to be the oldest treaty ally of the United States in the region”.
The latest large-scale fighting was set off by a skirmish on 7 December that wounded two Thai soldiers and derailed a ceasefire promoted by Mr Trump that ended five days of earlier combat in July over longstanding territorial disputes.
The July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Mr Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalised in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Mr Trump attended.
More than two dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in this past week’s fighting, while more than half a million have been displaced.
The Thai military acknowledged 15 of its troops died during the fighting, and estimated earlier this week that there have been 165 fatalities among Cambodian soldiers. Cambodia has not announced military casualties, but has said at least 11 civilians have been killed and more than six dozen wounded.
Mr Trump, after speaking to Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet, announced on Friday an agreement to restart the ceasefire.
“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Mr Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
Mr Trump’s claim came after midnight in Bangkok. Mr Anutin had, after his call with Mr Trump, said he had explained Thailand’s reasons for fighting and said peace would depend on Cambodia ceasing its attacks first.
The Thai foreign ministry later explicitly disputed Mr Trump’s claim that a ceasefire had been reached. Mr Anutin's busy day on Friday included dissolving Parliament, so new elections could be held early next year.
Mr Hun, in comments posted early on Saturday morning, also made no mention of a ceasefire.
Mr Hun said he held phone conversations on Friday night with Mr Trump, and a night earlier with Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, and thanked both “for their continuous efforts to achieve a long-lasting peace between Cambodia and Thailand.”
“Cambodia is ready to cooperate in any way that is needed," Mr Hun wrote.
Mr Anwar later posted on social media that he was urging the two sides to implement a ceasefire on Saturday night. Cambodia's prime minister, also posting online, endorsed the initiative, which included having Malaysia and the United States help monitor it. However, Mr Anutin denied that his country was even in negotiations over the proposal.
Thailand has been carrying out airstrikes on what it says are strictly military targets, while Cambodia has been firing thousands of medium-range BM-21 rockets that have caused havoc but relatively few casualties.
BM-21 rocket launchers can fire up to 40 rockets at a time with a range of 30-40km (19-25 miles). These rockets cannot be precisely targeted and have landed largely in areas from where most people have already been evacuated.
However, the Thai army announced on Saturday that BM-21 rockets had hit a civilian area in Sisaket province, seriously injuring two civilians who had heard warning sirens and had been running toward a bunker for safety.
Thailand's navy was also reported by both sides' militaries to have joined the fighting on Saturday morning, with a warship in the Gulf of Thailand shelling Cambodia's southwestern province of Koh Kong. Each side said the other opened fire first.
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