Fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East eased on Monday as Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Donald Trump to "immediately stop shooting". This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, acknowledged the halt in fighting with Iran in a televised speech, but vowed to respond "with force" to future attacks. "At present, the fire on this front has been halted, because after the terrorist regime in Tehran was struck, it stopped attacking us," Netanyahu said. "If that terrorist regime makes the mistake of attacking us again, we will respond with force."
The recent wave of Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel and retaliatory strikes by Israeli warplanes on Iran marked the most direct confrontation since an April ceasefire. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israeli-affiliated ships in the Red Sea, further escalating tension.
Any new "ceasefire within the ceasefire" is very fragile, analysts say, with multiple flashpoints that could lead to fresh exchanges of strikes and missile barrages at any moment. Israeli officials have rejected repeated Iranian efforts to link any definitive ceasefire to Israel stopping its offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has close ties with Tehran.
On Monday, Israel's defence minister said Israel would continue to operate against Hezbollah in Lebanon and strike Beirut if the militant Islamist movement attacked Israel. "Any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon and Iran and attack Israel will be met with great force, as happened yesterday," Israel Katz said.
Israel's attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, triggered Iran's missile barrages on Sunday. Iran also remained defiant. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliamentary speaker and most senior negotiator, said on Monday that Tehran would not tolerate what it called "repeated violation". "So long as you lack a genuine willingness to build trust, Iran's response will remain the same," he posted on X.
Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including an obscenity-filled rebuke of Netanyahu in a phone call last week, according to a report by Axios. The US website reported on Monday Trump's claims that he had again scolded Netanyahu. "I said: 'Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,'" he was quoted as saying.
However, the Israeli prime minister faces an election later this year and is under domestic pressure to continue efforts to degrade Hezbollah's ability to attack Israel. On Monday, there were reports of new launches of rockets by Hezbollah into northern Israel, and of a strike by Israel near Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Israel's recent attacks on Iran included a strike on an Iranian petrochemical complex. The Israeli military said it had also struck and dismantled Iran's defence systems deployed across several areas in the country. Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran. Iran's military headquarters said it had "delivered a painful response" to Israel for its attacks on Lebanon, including Sunday's strikes on the outskirts of Beirut.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted two military bases in Israel. An Iranian missile fragment caused damage to several homes in a West Bank settlement, but no injuries were reported. The sudden surge of violence shook financial markets, sending oil prices up 5% and threatening further price rises for fuel around the world. Stocks rose when both sides appeared to agree to halt the exchanges for now.
The new violence has also complicated Trump's push to end the war, launched by the US and Israel on 28 February with strikes that killed the then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A ceasefire announced two months ago paused all-out warfare though sporadic clashes in the Gulf have continued. In one of a flurry of social media posts, Trump on Monday said Israel and Iran both wanted "an immediate CEASEFIRE!" He added that a US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until a final deal was reached.
Esmaeil Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, 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, had been aimed at sabotaging diplomacy, he added. "No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States... It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected," he said.