Donald Trump’s truce between Israel and Iran under fire
Donald Trump’s gambit to end the Israel-Iran war in just 12 days was in peril on Tuesday night (AEST), with an enraged US president accusing both countries of breaking his ceasefire deal.
Donald Trump’s gambit to end the Israel-Iran war in just 12 days was in peril on Tuesday night (AEST), with an enraged US president accusing both countries of breaking his ceasefire deal and hating each other so much “they don’t know what the f..k they’re doing”.
Israel was ready to strike “at the heart” of Tehran’s regime on Tuesday after it said it intercepted two Iranian missiles headed for the Jewish state’s north just an hour after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a shock truce with the Ayatollah.
On his way to the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Mr Trump said he was going to stop Israel and that it had to “calm down”.
“You don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them, so I’m not happy with them, I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning either,” he said at Andrews Air Base.
“I don’t like the fact that Israel went out this morning at all. And I’m going to see if I can stop it. So as soon as I get away from you, I’m going to see if I can stop it.
Mr Trump said Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely demolished”.
“I think the reason we’re here is because those pilots, those B-2 pilots, did an unbelievable job,” he said.
“Those pilots hit their targets, those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit. (Iran’s) not after the pilots, they’re after me, they want to try it to me,” he said.
“Iran will never rebuild its nuclear … that place is under rock, that place is demolished, the B-2 pilots did their job, they did it better than anybody could even imagine”.
Signing off the brief press conference, Mr Trump said: “these people have been fight for so long, for so hard that they don’t know what the f..k they’re doing”.
Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday morning (Tuesday afternoon, AEST) had proclaimed he had achieved his decades-long goal to remove Iran as an existential threat to the Jewish state, saying he had agreed to the US President’s ceasefire after killing dozens of Iranian military leaders and securing “total air superiority” over Tehran.
Iranian state TV also said the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had agreed to the ceasefire and accused Mr Trump of “begging” for an end to its attacks on Israel.
But just an hour after Mr Netanyahu declared success for his operation to thwart the Iranian mullahs’ desire to build nuclear weapons, the Israel Defence Forces claimed Iran had launched ballistic missiles towards northern Israel. In a statement, the IDF said it had detected missiles “launched from Iran toward the territory of the state of Israel” and intercepted them.
Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF shortly after to conduct “intense strikes” against regime targets in Tehran.
“In light of Iran’s complete violation of the ceasefire declared by the US President and the launch of missiles towards Israel … I have instructed the IDF, in co-ordination with the Prime Minister, to continue the intense activity of attacking Tehran to thwart regime targets and terrorist infrastructures in Tehran,” Mr Katz said in a statement.
Iranian media reportedly denied Tehran was responsible for the post-ceasefire missiles.
Before the ceasefire was due to begin, Iran launched a six-round missile assault in the lead-up to the pause, which killed five Israelis in Beersheba.
As his plan to stabilise the Middle East came under threat, Mr Trump implored Mr Netanyahu and the Ayatollah to keep to his plans to stop fighting for an initial 12 hours.
The Republican President had firmly predicted a half-day ceasefire would end the conflict that disrupted the plans of Iran’s Shia clerics to develop a nuclear weapon and weakened their tenuous grip on power in Tehran.
Mr Trump had unveiled the ceasefire early on Tuesday after a “weak”, symbolic Iranian strike on the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Nobody was injured, but the strike sparked 24 hours of international aviation chaos as flights passing through Doha were cancelled.
“The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it!” Mr Trump wrote in all capital letters on his Truth Social platform within minutes of the pause starting.
Before the latest claims of a missile strike on northern Israel, Mr Trump was set for a rock-star reception at the NATO summit at The Hague this week over the surprise US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the possible end to the war within 48 hours of the mission.
In stark contrast to his delayed support for the US strikes, Anthony Albanese was quick to back Mr Trump’s ceasefire plan, but made it clear he would not make a last-minute dash to the Netherlands to seek a meeting with the US President this week.
He denied the government had been “flat-footed” in its response to the US military attack, after it waited 24 hours to endorse the action by Australia’s closest ally.
“What we want to see is the ceasefire announced by President Trump implemented,” the Prime Minister told Sky News on Tuesday.
“We think that we do want to see dialogue and diplomacy replace any escalation. And President Trump’s announcement, we very much welcome. We have made it very clear in multiple press conferences for some time now, including last week on the sideline of the G7, that Iran could not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.”
Mr Albanese defended his decision to skip the NATO summit after suggesting he could attend the conference to seek a meeting with Mr Trump, who cancelled their planned sit-down at the G7 in Canada last week.
“The President of (South) Korea is not there; the Prime Minister of Japan is not there,” Mr Albanese said.
Defence Minister Richard Marles will represent Australia at the summit.
A spokesman for the Israeli government said the IDF had signed up to the ceasefire after using the last minutes of the war to kill a top Tehran nuclear scientist. “Last night Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the cabinet to report that Israel has achieved all the objectives of Operation: Rising Lion,” the spokesman said.
Iranian state TV claimed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard would obey the ceasefire – after heavy losses to its security apparatuses and its nuclear facilities in recent days – but attempted to spin the ceasefire as a capitulation by the White House.
Following a largely symbolic attack on the US air base in Qatar that was dismissed by Mr Trump as “weak”, Iran said it would stop its attacks on Israel.
“The Sepah (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) successful missile operations in response to US aggression and the exemplary steadfastness and unity of our dear people in defending our land, has imposed ceasefire on the enemy,” an anchor with the INNN said in a live broadcast.
“Last evening, only an hour after the successful missile attack by the Sepah on America’s Al Udeid Base in Qatar, in a begging-like manner of urging, Trump requested the initiation of a ceasefire in the imposed Zionist enemy war against our country.”
Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli government remained silent about the ceasefire and within minutes of it taking effect, sirens sounded in Haifa and central Israel amid Iran’s sixth round of ballistic missiles launched that morning. The previous rounds struck an apartment building in Beersheba and killed at least four people. Scepticism was growing in Israel on Tuesday over Iran’s seriousness about the ceasefire following its targeting of civilians up until the last minute, despite Mr Trump’s claims the war was near the end.
“Israel and Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, ‘Peace!’ I knew the time was now. The world, and the Middle East, are the real winners!” the US President wrote on Truth Social. “Both nations will see tremendous love, peace, and prosperity in their futures. They have so much to gain, and yet, so much to lose if they stray from the road of righteousness and truth.”
Additional reporting: Joe Kelly, Yoni Bashan, Noah Yim
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