A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding after it got off to a shaky start, and President Trump publicly urged Israel to stop the bombing.
Trump announced the truce on Wednesday night, which was followed by heavy Israeli attacks on Tehran. Iran then hit back with several waves of ballistic missile strikes.
“[Iran] violated it, but Israel violated it too,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before boarding Marine One to go to the NATO summit in The Hague. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel.”
When Trump announced the ceasefire, he said it would take effect in 12 hours. “When I say, ok, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket,” Trump said.
“We have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f–k they are doing,” the president added.
According to a report from Axios, Iran fired three missiles that were either intercepted or landed in open areas, and Israel sent fighter jets to bomb Iran about the same time Trump was speaking to reporters. After his comments, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
The Axios report said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then spoke to Trump and said he could cancel the airstrikes, but that Israel significantly scaled back the planned attack and targeted only one radar system. In a follow-up post, Trump said, “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
Since this morning, both Iran and Israel have acknowledged the ceasefire. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) credited the Iranian military’s response and counterattacks as the reason why Israel decided to halt its war and said it was ready to respond if Israel violated the truce.
In a statement on the ceasefire, Netanyahu said he decided to refrain from additional attacks on Iran after a conversation with Trump.
