WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was holding, shortly after he lashed out at both countries and cursed as he accused them of violating the truce.
In a fast-moving series of declarations, the US President, who was on his way to attend a NATO summit in The Hague, posted on his Truth Social app that “the Ceasefire is in effect!”
“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,” Trump wrote.
Minutes earlier, Trump had castigated Iran and also close US ally Israel for violating a ceasefire he had originally announced late Monday.
The two countries have been “fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, do you understand that?” the president told reporters at the White House.
Iran violated the ceasefire, “but Israel violated it too,” Trump told reporters on the White House’s South Lawn as he departed for the NATO summit.
“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.”
“I’ve got to get Israel to calm down,” he said. “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.”
Trump’s unusually public display of anger at Israel saw the US leader apparently trying to cajole his ally to call off warplanes in real-time.
Earlier the same morning, he had posted on Truth Social: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS” — without it being clear which bombs he was referring to.
“IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”
Iran-Israel ceasefire
A fragile ceasefire in the Iran-Israel war appeared to be holding Tuesday, after 12 days of strikes that saw Israel and the United States pummel the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
In Israel, no warning sirens sounded after 0745 GMT, while in Iran, the military reported the last strikes at around 0530 GMT.
Israel said it had agreed to Trump’s ceasefire plan, adding that it had achieved all its objectives.
Iran’s top security body said the Islamic republic’s forces had “compelled” Israel to “unilaterally” cease fire.
Its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had earlier said that if Israel stopped “its illegal aggression,” Tehran would have “no intention” to continue fighting.
After Trump said the truce had taken hold, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army “to respond forcefully” to what he described as a ceasefire violation by Iran.
Iran however denied launching missiles at Israel after the announcement, and its military later accused Israel of similarly launching attacks after the ceasefire.
But attacks had continued until the ceasefire took effect, with Israeli rescuers reporting four people killed in a strike and state media in the Islamic republic saying waves of missiles were headed toward Israel.
In Iran, state television said an overnight Israeli strike in northern Iran killed nuclear scientist Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, who was under US sanctions.
