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A fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel appeared to hold Tuesday after initially faltering, while U.S. President Donald Trump used an expletive outside the White House to describe his frustration with both nations.
On his way to a NATO summit, Trump initially told reporters in Washington that both sides had violated the agreement. But he had particularly strong words for Israel, a close ally, while suggesting Iran may have fired on the country by mistake.
“I’m not happy with Israel,” he said, standing on the lawn, before boarding Marine One.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f–k they’re doing,” he said.
But later, online, he said the deal had been saved.
“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
The truce, if it holds, will provide a global sense of relief after the U.S. intervened in the latest conflict between Iran and Israel by dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend — a move that risked further destabilizing the volatile region. Israel followed up by expanding the kinds of targets it was hitting.
The conflict — now in its 12th day — began with Israel targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, saying it could not allow Tehran to develop atomic weapons and that it feared the Islamic Republic was close.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Deal off to a rocky start
An Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said Iran launched two missiles at Israel hours into the tenuous ceasefire. Both were intercepted, the official said.
Iranian state television reported that the military denied firing missiles after the start of the ceasefire, while condemning Israel for pre-dawn strikes of its own.
One of those attacks killed a high-profile nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, at his father-in-law’s residence in northern Iran, Iranian state TV reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel struck an Iranian radar site in response to the Iranian missile attack early Tuesday, but Israeli forces held off on something bigger after Netanyahu spoke with Trump.
The Israeli prime minister said Israel agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with Iran, in co-ordination with Trump, after the country achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
It’s unclear what role Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.
Before the ceasefire was announced, Israel’s military said Iran launched 20 missiles toward Israel. Police said they damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba. First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more. At least 20 people were injured.
Outside, the shells of burned out cars littered the streets. Broken glass and rubble covered the area. Police said some people were injured while inside their apartments’ reinforced safe rooms, which are meant to withstand rockets but not direct hits from ballistic missiles.
Some Iranians are fleeing the country to escape attacks from Israel and the U.S., while others are trying to enter Iran to reunite with their families. CBC’s Briar Stewart reports from the Iran-Turkey border.
The attack followed a limited Iranian missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for earlier American bombing of its nuclear sites. The U.S. was warned by Iran in advance, and there were no casualties.
Speaking Tuesday, Trump said he wasn’t seeking regime change in Iran, two days after floating the idea himself in a social media post.
“I don’t want it,” the president told reporters on Air Force One. “Regime change takes chaos and, ideally, we don’t want to see much chaos.”
In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel.
Global Affairs Canada said 6,000 Canadians have registered in Israel using the department’s database, while slightly more than 400 have registered in the West Bank and around 5,500 have registered in Iran.
The actual number of Canadians in any given region is usually much higher than the numbers registered with Ottawa, Dennis Horak, a former Canadian ambassador who served in the Middle East, told The Canadian Press.
Source: cbc
