The Iranian military said it will stop launching strikes against Israel as a tentative Middle East ceasefire teetered on Monday after both sides traded attacks in the biggest escalation in the crisis for weeks and Donald Trump claimed both sides wanted an “immediate ceasefire.”
Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Monday in response to missile fire from Tehran, despite President Trump reportedly telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.
Iran had launched the strikes after Israel carried out attacks in Lebanon on Sunday. Tehran followed up with a further wave of strikes on Monday after Israel’s retaliation.
In a statement, Iran’s central military command said it had “delivered a painful response” and that Israel “and its supporters must learn a lesson” from the strikes.
Israel also said it had halted strikes, according to Reuters, indicating a pause in hostilities was taking hold.
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.
On Monday, Trump said both sides must “immediately stop shooting” in a post on his Truth Social account. He added in a later post that both sides were looking to broker an “immediate ceasefire” and that “Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding.”
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