President Trump told Iran and Israel to “immediately stop” attacking each other on Monday as the two countries traded their first military strikes since a ceasefire took hold in early April.
Mr. Trump said he was optimistic that both sides would back off.
“Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media.
Iran launched ballistic missiles at central and southern Israel, triggering Israel’s air defense systems on Monday. The attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s weekend strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Iran says Hezbollah, the terror proxy sponsored by Tehran, was supposed to be a part of a ceasefire.
Israel responded to Monday’s attacks by striking a major petrochemical plant in Iran.
Iran’s forces said they would stop attacking Israel shortly after Mr. Trump’s post early Monday. They warned that strikes would resume if Israel hit Lebanon again.
The volley of strikes threatened to unravel the tenuous Middle East peace that had been in place for roughly two months.
Mr. Trump is working on a deal that would end his blockade of Iranian ports and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, setting the table for a final negotiation over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, said the surge in violence is a reminder that the ceasefire is “tenuous” and that breaking it can have “unbearable consequences.”
“As we work earnestly and painstakingly, together with our brothers and partners, to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the conflict, and especially when the final objective is just about to be achieved, we sincerely urge all sides to exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance,” he said on social media.
Preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is the goal of the U.S.-Israeli military operation, which began on Feb. 28.
SEE ALSO: Israel and Iran trade strikes, threatening to drag the region back into full-scale war
“The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a ‘Final Deal’ is reached,” Mr. Trump wrote Monday. “Things should move quickly.”
Countries involved in the war had traded airstrikes, here and there, during the ceasefire, but Monday’s violence was a significant uptick in aggression.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, a few hours before his more optimistic post about an immediate ceasefire.
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