The tentative Middle East ceasefire teetered on Monday as Israel and Iran traded airstrikes in the biggest escalation in the crisis for weeks.
Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Monday in response to missile fire from Tehran, despite US President Donald Trump reportedly telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.
Iran had launched its attacks — the first since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April — after Israel carried out airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday. Tehran followed up with a further wave of strikes on Monday after Israel’s retaliation.
The Israeli strikes came hours after Trump told Axios in the wake of Iran’s initial retaliation: “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”
A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press that Trump had called Netanyahu to urge him not to retaliate and that he believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait. Trump later told the Financial Times: “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal. I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
The exchange, which marks the biggest escalation between the two sides since a tentative ceasefire came into force on April 8, threatened to derail ongoing peace talks and drag the wider Middle East back into a full-scale regional war.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tehran’s latest attack marked the “beginning of a full week of continuous strike,” while Yemen’s Houthi rebels also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israel-affiliated ships in the Red Sea, further escalating tension.
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