US President Donald Trump has accused both Israel and Iran of breaching a fragile ceasefire that came into effect this morning.
Earlier today, Israeli jets struck targets in Iran despite Mr Trump demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu obey the terms of the ceasefire. The head of Iran’s police intelligence and the commander of a paramilitary forces are believed to have been killed in strikes on Tehran and the northern city of Babolsar.
In an off-the-cuff interview with the press this afternoon, Trump said Israel and Iran “don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” with the US president taking to his platform, Truth Social, to demand Israel bring its pilots home “NOW” after the country vowed to launch strikes on the “heart of Tehran.”
“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” Trump wrote on the social media platform.
Reports suggested Israeli warplanes were already en route. However, in a last ditch call with Mr Netanyahu, it was agreed the attacks would be scaled back.
“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 wrote.
“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! Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,” the American leader added.
In a separate post, Trump added: “IRAN WILL NEVER REBUILD THEIR NUCLEAR FACILITIES!” Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House earlier today, Trump suggested that Israel had overreacted to an Iranian rocket fired after the ceasefire.
“We have to have Israel calm down,” he said.“Because they went on a mission this morning. I gotta get Israel to calm down now.”
The US leader has said that he is also unhappy with Iran, however has suggested they may have fired a ballistic missile at Israel by mistake. It came after Israel accused Iran of launching two ballistic missiles at the north of the country not long after the ceasefire came into effect. However, Iran accused Israel of its own breach and denied breaking the ceasefire.
“I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land.
“I’m not happy about that. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” he told reporters.
Clarifying a recent post about regime change in Iran, Trump said: “No, I don’t want to. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible.
“Regime Change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos. So we’ll see how it goes,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a NATO summit. Trump has also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him and offered to help with Iran.
“You know, the Iranians are very good traders, very good business people, and they got a lot of oil. They should be fine. They should be able to rebuild and do a good job.”
No new explosions have been reported as Iranian state media celebrated what officials deemed a ceasefire “imposed” on Israel. Iranian State television said that the Islamic Republic’s “successful resistance had forced enemies to halt attacks.”