Donald Trump has broken his silence after Israel vowed to ‘respond forcefully’ to Iran’s alleged flouting of the ceasefire deal he brokered, before Iran accused Israel of also breaking it
Donald Trump has broken his silence as his brokered ceasefire with Iran and Israel appears to be on the brink of collapse.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Trump said he was “not happy” with Israel. He also said both countries had broken the terms of the agreement. And taking Truth Social he issued a warning to Israel, saying: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
A clearly enraged Trump then spoke on live TV, saying the two countries “don’t know what the f*** they’re doing”. “We have two countries that have fought for so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” he said.
Trump boasted last night that he had effectively ended the conflict with a rambling post on Truth Social in which he praised both sides for having the “courage” and “intelligence” to end what he called the “12 DAY WAR”.
While Iran was told to halt all strikes a few hours after the post, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed his country agreed to the proposal just after 7am this morning UK time. However, within hours it all started to fall apart.
Iran’s military denied firing on Israel, state media reported – but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel midmorning, and an Israeli military official said two Iranian missiles were intercepted.
The conflict, now in its 12th day, began with Israel targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, saying it could not allow Tehran to develop atomic weapons – and that it feared the Islamic Republic was close. Iran has long maintained that its program is peaceful.
Many worried the war might widen after the US joined the attacks by dropping bunker-buster bombs over the weekend. But after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike on a US military base in Qatar on Monday, Trump announced a ceasefire.
Both sides accepted the agreement, but it is now unclear if it will hold. “Tehran will tremble,” Israeli Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich warned on X, raising the spectre that the war might continue.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran’s “violation of the ceasefire” will not go unpunished, adding that he had ordered the Israel Defence Forces to “respond forcefully”. He said they will be deploying “intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran”.
A spokesperson for the IDF, Chief of Staff Major General Eyal Zamir, said: “In light of the serious ceasefire violation committed by the Iranian regime, we will attack with force.”
An Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said Iran launched two missiles at Israel hours into the tenuous ceasefire. Both were intercepted, the official said.
Iranian state television reported the military denied firing missiles after the start of the ceasefire – while accusing Israel of conducting strikes. It offered no evidence to support the claim of Israeli fire, with the last reports of such attacks coming before dawn.
Part of the difficulty in sorting out the competing claims was that Trump’s social media post announcing the ceasefire said Iran would begin holding its fire hours earlier than Israel. He later, however, announced that the ceasefire was in effect, even though the window he initially gave for Israel had not yet closed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with Iran in coordination with Trump, while pledging to respond to any subsequent violation. He said that Israel had achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
An announcement on Iranian state TV later said the ceasefire was in effect. So did Trump, who posted: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his country would not fire at Israel if it was not fired upon, but that a “final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later.”
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To secure the ceasefire, Trump had communicated directly with Netanyahu, according to a senior White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the Monday talks. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff communicated with the Iranians through direct and indirect channels.
The White House has maintained that the U.S. bombing helped get the Israelis to agree to the ceasefire and that the Qatari government helped to broker the deal. It’s unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.