Iran and Israel said yesterday they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from US President Donald Trump that they immediately ‘stop shooting’.
President Trump said Israel and Iran are ‘looking to do an immediate ceasefire’ after a round of attacks between the two countries threatened the fragile truce that had already been in place.
“Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a ‘Final Deal’ is reached. Things should move quickly.”
Trump has been signalling for weeks that a preliminary deal to end the war is close, but so far it hasn’t materialised.
Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hizbollah in Lebanon.
The wave of attacks over 24 hours were the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire.
Oil prices – which had risen by as much as five per cent after the flurry of attacks – pared gains when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.
A source said Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran.
Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling them retaliation for Israeli attacks on Hizbollah strongholds on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel then hit a petrochemical plant in southwest Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
Iran’s military said it had ‘delivered a painful response’ against Israel for its attacks on Lebanon.
“Accordingly, the operations of the armed forces are hereby declared halted; however, it is emphasised that if the aggressions and acts of mischief continue – including in southern Lebanon – much more severe and crushing actions than before will follow.”
Hours after Iran’s announcement, sirens sounded in the Zar’it area of northern Israel when a projectile was identified as falling in an area of southern Lebanon where Israeli forces are operating.
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