Iran, Israel halt attacks after first exchange of fire since April truce

Iran’s military command on Monday announced it was halting its operation against Israel after the two sides exchanged fire for the first time since a truce took effect in April. Israel also halted strikes on Iran at the request of US President Donald Trump, a senior Israeli official was cited as saying by Channel 12 on Monday. The official added that if Hezbollah attacks on Israeli towns continue, Israel will attack the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s Beirut. The Channel 12 report also said that Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon would continue at full strength in the coming days Iran had delivered a “painful response” to Israel and “accordingly, the cessation of armed forces operations is hereby announced”, the Khatam al-Anbiya command said in a statement carried by state television. “However, it is emphasised that should acts of aggression and hostility continue, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and crushing measures than before will follow,” it added. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran remained at the negotiating table. “We have neither left the battlefield nor the negotiating table,” Pezeshkian said in a post on X, adding that Tehran “will not retreat in the face of any threat”. Earlier, US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Israel and Iran must “stop shooting”. He said both sides “are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on “Peace” are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way”. Israel said earlier on Monday that it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran’s southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets, after Trump had reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks. In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire began, Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, while a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged. Also on Monday, an Israeli military official said Iran had fired nearly 30 missiles towards Israel since Sunday night. Hours earlier, Trump said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect US peace talks with Tehran, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots”. 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 rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities last week. However, earlier on Sunday Israel launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the US last week announced a truce plan for Lebanon. Iran fired salvoes of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, putting peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted an agreement to end the wider war remained within reach. It’s not going to have any impact on the deal. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots US President Donald Trump “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.” A few hours later, Israel’s defence forces said they had struck Iranian military targets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attacks. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that “everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime”. No further details of Monday’s damage were immediately available. Iran’s state media have said enemy projectiles have hit five production lines at the petrochemical plant since the war began on February 28. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Ramat David airbase, near Nazareth. The Israeli military said its defence systems intercepted missiles identified from Iran, while also activating aerial defences against a missile launched from Yemen – that country’s first strike on Israel since the ceasefire. Trump spoke with Netanyahu for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details. Trump told him to refrain from further strikes because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal”, according to a US official quoted by Axios. Trump told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to negotiating. He also said Israel’s strikes in Lebanon earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the US and “I’m not happy about it”. Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire. Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. Iran’s chief peace negotiator, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said US bases and Israeli assets were legitimate targets because of hostile acts, including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon”. Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah had done so. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement on ending the war. Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Hezbollah, which kept out of truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its Lebanon attacks and withdraws. Netanyahu said Israel’s Sunday strikes on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing towards Israel. The wider war has been stalled since the US and Israel paused attacks on Iran in April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports. Though Washington and Tehran have said they were close to a preliminary deal to reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations recently including attacks on nearby Arab states hosting US bases. Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he was under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated. Tehran’s demands include the lifting of sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its sway over the strait. Additional reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

Iran, Israel halt attacks after first exchange of fire since April truce

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US President Donald Trump had said the two nations must ‘immediately stop shooting’

US President Donald Trump had said the two nations must ‘immediately stop shooting’