TEL AVIV/DUBAI/NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that both Israel and Iran are looking to “do an immediate ceasefire,” and that final negotiations on “peace” are proceeding.
“Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on “Peace” are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a “Final Deal” is reached. Things should move quickly,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump earlier urged Iran and Israel to cease hostilities as both countries engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, seriously threatening talks for a deal to end the Middle East war.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’,” Trump posted on his social media account.
In response, Iran’s military command on Monday announced it was halting its operation against Israel after the two sides exchanged fire for the first time since a truce took effect in April.
Iran had delivered a “painful response” to Israel and “accordingly, the cessation of armed forces operations is hereby announced”, the Khatam Al-Anbiya command said in a statement carried by state television.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Monday, an Israeli official told Reuters.
The call took place before Trump posted on social media that Israel and Iran were seeking an immediate ceasefire, the official added.
The Iranian government however held the US responsible for the resumption of fighting with Israel, saying Israel’s actions “cannot be separated” from US policy.
“Without a doubt, as I said, the actions of the Zionist regime in the region cannot be separated from US policies,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press conference in Tehran attended by AFP.
“No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,” he added.
“It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected,” Baqaei said.
Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran’s southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets, after Trump reportedly told Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks. Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, while a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged.
The Israel army also said it struck and dismantled air defense capabilities that Tehran had been deploying to restore its defenses.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they responded to Israel’s attack on the petrochemical plant by launching missile on a similar plant in Haifa, Tasnim reported. The Israeli army said Iran had fired nearly 30 missiles at Israel since Sunday night.
A huge blast rocked central Tehran on Monday, an AFP journalist reported, followed by repeated explosions believed to be from air defense systems in the capital.
The initial explosion shook the premises of the foreign ministry in central Tehran, where an AFP journalist was attending a weekly press conference.
“The exact location and source of this explosion are still unknown,” local media, including Fars news agency, reported, adding that “simultaneously, air defense was also activated in some parts of Tehran.”
Local media in Iran said Monday that a “hostile drone” was shot down over the capital Tehran. “A hostile drone belonging to the American-Zionist enemy was targeted and destroyed by air defenses in the skies over Tehran,” the Mehr news agency reported, without elaborating.
Israel warned of a third barrage of missiles was incoming from Iran late Monday morning and urged the public to take shelter.
Hours earlier, Trump said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect his administration’s peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.”
Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week.
However, earlier on Sunday Israel launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week. Iran fired salvos of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, putting US-Iran peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remained well within reach.
“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”
Houthis threaten escalation
The Israeli military said it had activated aerial defense systems to intercept a missile it identified as having been launched from Yemen, in an attack that would be Yemen’s first on Israel since the ceasefire.
The Houthis in Yemen later claimed responsibility for missile attacks targeting what they described as sensitive Israeli sites in the Tel Aviv area, saying the strikes were carried out in coordination with the “axis of resistance” in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza.
In a statement, the group announced a “complete ban” on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea and warned that all Israeli-linked vessels would be considered legitimate military targets.
The Houthis also pledged further escalation in response to Israeli operations in Lebanon, Gaza and Iran, saying their military actions would continue as long as what they described as “aggression and siege” persisted.
Trump urged Netanyahu to hold off further strikes
Trump spoke with Netanyahu by telephone from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details.
The White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump told Netanyahu during the call to refrain from further strikes because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” according to a US official quoted by Axios.
Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire.
Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon.
Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah had done so.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement on ending the war.
“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in a recorded interview that aired on Sunday to mark 100 days of the conflict.
Trump wants no attacks in Lebanon
Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
Hezbollah, which kept out of truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon.
Netanyahu said Israel’s Sunday strikes on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh and a longtime Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel.
The wider war has been stalled since the US and Israel paused attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
– with Reuters and AFP
