US President Donald Trump said Monday that Israel and Iran must stop “shooting,” as the two countries attacked each other for the first time since a ceasefire two months ago.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’,” Trump said in a brief post on Truth Social.
Earlier speaking to Axios, President Trump said he will tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “not to retaliate” against Iranian missiles. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,” Trump told the outlet. “Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”
“We are very close to a final deal with Iran. It is going to be a good deal. I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now,” Axios cites the president as saying.
Trump says that if Israel strikes back, the conflict will just continue for “47 years — or the last 3,000 years”, according to Axios.
Trump also urged Iran to return to the negotiating table, after it launched missiles at northern Israel.
A Fox News correspondent quotes Trump as saying: “You’ve shot your missiles. That’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.”
Iran blames US for resumption of hostilities with Israel
Iran said Monday that the United States held responsibility for the resumption of fighting with Israel, saying Israel’s actions “cannot be separated” from US policy.
“Without a doubt, as I said, the actions of the Zionist regime in the region cannot be separated from US policies,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press conference in Tehran attended by AFP.
“No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,” he added.
He said that the resumption of hostilities in the Middle East war will have consequences for ongoing talks with the United States to reach peace in the region.
“It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected,” Esmaeil Baqaei said.
To q question, he said Pakistan’s mediation efforts to end the war with the United States were continuing even after fighting resumed with Israel.
“Diplomatic consultations are naturally continuing in all circumstances,” said Esmaeil Baqaei.
Iran, Israel launch air attacks on each other
Iran and Israel launched air attacks on each other, rattling a fragile April 8 truce as the war entered its 100th day, with the United States struggling to conclude a deal with Tehran to end the conflict.
Israel said Monday it had struck targets across Iran, defying US President Donald Trump’s call to refrain from retaliating against Tehran’s barrage of missiles.
Explosions were heard in three cities including Tehran, according to Iranian state TV, as the Israeli military said it struck targets in western and central Iran.
The Israeli barrage was tit-for-tat action against Iran’s assault on Sunday of 11 missiles, all of which were intercepted, with no casualties.
Trump had sought to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel accused Tehran of making a “grave mistake”.
“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,” Trump was quoted as saying by Axios journalist Barak Ravid in a phone interview, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
“Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump reportedly said.
Ravid later posted that a US official said Trump spoke with Netanyahu, although the White House and Trump have yet to comment.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper joined the pleas for restraint. “The resumption of conflict between Iran and Israel is in no one’s interest,” she wrote on X, calling for diplomacy.
Explosions heard over Jerusalem
AFP journalists heard at least eight explosions over Jerusalem on Monday as Israel said it was intercepting a new wave of Iranian missiles.
The Israeli army wrote on Telegram it had “identified missiles launched from Iran” and was working to intercept the threat.
An AFP journalist in Jerusalem witnessed at least one interception as residents hurried to shelters in the city.
Israel’s emergency service provider Magen David Adom said there were no reports of any casualties.
Iran has launched multiple waves of missiles towards Israel since Sunday evening, rattling a fragile truce between the two countries engulfed in the Middle East war.
Iran Guards say struck two Israeli air bases
Iran said Monday it had struck Israel’s Nevatim and Tel Nof air bases, as the two sides traded fire in the largest flare-up in fighting since a ceasefire took effect in April.
“The operation was carried out in response to a missile attack launched by the Zionist regime… against several radar sites in three different places” in Iran, the country’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological wing of Iran’s army, said in a statement.
Both countries target each other’s petrochemical facilities
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday they had targeted a petrochemical facility in Israel in retaliation for an attack on a similar site in southwestern Iran.
“The Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in response to the aggression of the American-Zionist enemy against a petrochemical industry facility, targeted similar industrial facilities in Haifa with missile strikes a few moments ago,” the Guards’ official media outlet Sepah News said.
They also warned that Israel “has initiated a dangerous game, the scope of which will encompass all energy-related targets in the region”, blaming the US for any consequences for the global economy.
Iran fired 30 missiles at Israel
Iran fired nearly 30 missiles towards Israel since Sunday night, an Israeli military official said, marking the first exchange of fire between the two countries since a truce in April.
“Last night the Iranian regime began firing ballistic missiles towards Israel… they fired close to 30 ballistic missiles towards Israel,” the official told journalists on Monday, adding that Yemen’s Houthi rebels separately fired two missiles at the country.
‘Hostile drone’ downed over Tehran
Local media in Iran said Monday that a “hostile drone” was shot down over the capital Tehran during the new round of fighting with Israel.
“A hostile drone belonging to the American-Zionist enemy was targeted and destroyed by air defences in the skies over Tehran,” the Mehr news agency reported, without elaborating.
Massive blast heard in Tehran
A huge blast rocked central Tehran on Monday, an AFP journalist reported, followed by repeated explosions believed to be from air defence systems in the capital.
The initial explosion shook the premises of the foreign ministry in central Tehran, where an AFP journalist was attending a weekly press conference.
“The exact location and source of this explosion are still unknown,” local media, including Fars news agency, reported, adding that “simultaneously, air defence was also activated in some parts of Tehran”.
Iran says Israel struck petrochemical company
Iranian media on Monday said Israel had struck a petrochemical company in southwestern Iran, as the warring countries traded fire hours after US President Donald Trump called for restraint.
“The Zionist enemy has carried out an air attack on the Karun Petrochemical Company in Mahshahr,” local media posted on Telegram.
It quoted a local law enforcement official as saying that Israeli projectiles struck the facility.
State news agency IRNA reported that the special petrochemical economic zone which hosts the company had evacuated “its daytime employees… following an aerial attack by the hostile Zionist enemy”.
Karoon petrochemical company was founded in 2002-2003 as the first “knowledge based” petrochemical company of Iran.
It produces more than 200,000 tonnes of petrochemical products annually according to the figures published on its website.
Israel and Iran traded fire hours after US President Donald Trump called on Israel to refrain from retaliating against Tehran’s missiles.
– Warning –
Tehran has insisted any deal to permanently end the war must also halt the parallel conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is pursuing a campaign against the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah, and had warned that any new attacks on Beirut would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of hostilities.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ali Safari told Al-Mayadeen television that Tehran’s strikes came after weeks of restraint against Israeli aggression, local media reported.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards called the attack a “warning” after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day, threatening wider strikes in the event of repeated aggression.
A separate Iranian attack targeting the headquarters of “terrorist groups” in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday added yet more strain to hopes for a lasting peace.
The Iranian government accuses the armed Kurdish parties of serving Western or Israeli interests.
The Israeli army also said Monday it was working to intercept a missile launched from Yemen, where rebels have previously launched attacks on Israel.
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office announced the army had “struck a militant command centre in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, in response to Hezbollah’s fire towards Israeli territory”.
The raid killed two people and wounded 20 more, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel had warned it would hit the area should Hezbollah attack northern Israel, and the group later confirmed having launched missiles and drones at a pair of Israeli army barracks early Sunday.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and its chief negotiator in talks with Washington, accused the United States of having given a “green light” for the Beirut attack, saying US and Israeli assets were now “legitimate targets”.
The head of Iran’s military central command said Israel had “crossed all red lines” with the Beirut strike, demanding it halt its campaign in Lebanon.
“Tonight’s operation (against Israel) was a warning,” the Revolutionary Guards said. “If such aggressions are repeated, the responses will be broader and will cover all US-Zionist targets in the region.”
Shortly after the attack, Iran announced it was closing its airspace over the country’s west, while neighbouring Iraq and nearby Syria followed suit.
Tehran also suspended all incoming flights to its international airport, local media reported Sunday.
– ‘Gone numb’ –
The sharp escalation sent crude prices surging as hopes dimmed on any imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for oil and gas transit which has been effectively shut by Iran.
Irans were also already feeling the strain of weeks of uncertainty.
“I really have gone numb,” fitness trainer Elaheh from Ahvaz told AFP.
“Daily life? It’s a joke. Everything is horrible. We only try to survive,” the 32-year-old added, pointing to rising prices.
There were some weekend signs of ongoing diplomatic efforts, with Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visiting Tehran.
Naqvi said upon his arrival Saturday that he would deliver a “special letter” from Pakistan’s army chief to Iran’s supreme leader, as well as a message from the prime minister, according to Iranian state television.
Pakistani military leader Syed Asim Munir has played a key role in mediating between Iran and the US following an initial round of direct negotiations in Islamabad.
Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had told CNN negotiations with the United States “are at a deadlock, and Trump must break this deadlock”, calling for the release of some $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
But Trump said he would not unfreeze Iranian assets before reaching an initial agreement with Tehran, telling NBC on Sunday: “If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking”.
