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’”, though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling them retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia 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 military said it had “delivered a painful response” against Israel for its attacks on Lebanon.
The latest exchanges complicated Trump’s push to end a war launched by the US and Israel on February 28. A ceasefire announced on April 8 had paused all-out warfare but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.
In one of several posts on social media, Trump said Israel and Iran both wanted an immediate ceasefire. “Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.”
An Israeli official said Trump had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday.
Earlier, an Israeli military official said Israel was prepared to continue operations for “as long as it takes”, and confirmed strikes on newly rebuilt Iranian air defence systems in addition to the petrochemical target.
Iranian officials struck a similarly defiant tone. A military source quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran was ready for a prolonged conflict and could renew strikes against US interests in the region.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was exchanging messages with Washington in an atmosphere of “extreme suspicion”. Israel’s actions in Lebanon, whether carried out with US knowledge and consent or not, were aimed at sabotaging diplomacy, he said.
In Tehran, Iranian media reported explosions, with air defences shooting down a drone over the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis pledged in a statement to stop Israeli navigation in the Red Sea, and said they had also fired missiles at Israel. The Houthis have so far largely stayed out of the regional war. They control territory at the mouth of the Red Sea, increasingly important as an alternative route for millions of barrels per day of Middle East oil otherwise blocked by Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel said it had struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex that were used to produce and export raw materials for Iran’s missile programme. A provincial official told Iranian media that parts of the plant were damaged.
Of 15 people injured across Iran in the latest Israeli attacks, 14 were in Mahshahr County, but no deaths were reported, Iran’s National Emergency Organisation said.
The Israeli ambulance service said no casualties were reported from the missile launches toward Israel.
Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying it should be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire.
Hizbollah has also continued its attacks. Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hizbollah who had fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.
The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said yesterday that Lebanese-Israeli negotiations had been scheduled to resume in Washington.
Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
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