Explosions in Tehran despite Trump's order to Israel to stop attacks
Explosions in Tehran despite Trump's order to Israel to stop attacks
Despite an instruction from US President Donald Trump to Israel to end the attacks, explosions from Israeli air strikes shook the Iranian capital Tehran
on Tuesday - just hours after a ceasefire came into force.
on Tuesday - just hours after a ceasefire came into force.
Two eyewitnesses who were reached by phone in Tehran reported two loud explosions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that Israel had attacked a radar system near Tehran in retaliation for Iranian missile strikes that took place three and a half hours after the start of the agreed ceasefire.
According to the statement, Israel decided after a phone call between Netanyahu and Trump to refrain from further attacks. However, it remained unclear whether the blow to the radar took place before or after the phone call.
The prospect of an end to the fiercest confrontation to date between the two arch-enemies of the Middle East caused oil prices to fall and boosted stock markets worldwide – an imminent interruption of oil supplies from the Gulf thus receded into the background.
Trump, on his way to a NATO summit in the Netherlands, had criticized Israel with an obscene remark – an unusually sharp rebuke to an ally whose military campaign he had supported two days earlier.
"All planes are now turning around and waving a friendly wave to Iran on the flight home. No one is hurt, the ceasefire is in force!", Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Previously, he had already warned there:
"Israel. Don't drop these bombs. If you do that, it is a serious violation. Get your pilots back immediately!"
Shortly before his departure from the White House, Trump told reporters that he was dissatisfied with both sides because of the violations of the ceasefire – but especially with Israel, which "got started" shortly after the agreement was concluded.
"I have to reassure Israel now," Trump said. "Iran and Israel have been fighting so long and so fiercely that they don't even know what the hell they're doing."
Infringements?
A reporter from Axios reported that Netanyahu told Trump that Israel would only reduce the bombing, but not cancel it.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Tuesday that he had instructed the military to fly massive attacks on targets in Tehran in response to alleged Iranian missile strikes, which were carried out "in blatant violation" of the ceasefire.
Iran rejected the rocket fire and said Israel had continued its attacks for an hour and a half beyond the time of the ceasefire.
Despite these reports of rule-violations, relief was felt in both countries – a possible way out of the war seemed to have been found, just 12 days after Israel launched the conflict with a surprise attack and two days after Trump participated in attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"We are happy, very happy. It doesn't matter who mediated or how it came about. The war is over. It should never have been started," said Reza Sharifi (38), who had just returned with his family from Rasht on the Caspian Sea to Tehran, where he had fled from the attacks.
Arik Daimant, a software developer in Tel Aviv, said:
"Unfortunately, it is a bit too late for me and my family, our house was completely destroyed in the bombings on Sunday. But as they say, 'Better late than never' – and I hope this ceasefire is a new beginning."
Trump rejects regime change
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he did not want the Iranian government to fall.
"I don't want that. I want everything to calm down as soon as possible. Regime change leads to chaos – and ideally we don't want to see more chaos."
He added:
"Iran will not have a nuclear bomb – and frankly, I think that's the last thing on their minds right now."
Victims before the ceasefire
In the hours before the ceasefire began, four people were killed by Iranian missiles that hit a residential building in Beersheba in southern Israel, according to the Israeli rescue service. Iranian authorities, for their part, reported nine fatalities after an attack on a residential building in the north of the country.
Attacks on nuclear targets
Israel launched a surprise attack on June 13 and targeted Iranian nuclear facilities. The top leadership of the Iranian military was killed – the most serious threat to the Islamic Republic since the war with Iraq in the 1980s.
During the campaign, Israel had declared that it was prepared to overthrow the Iranian regime if necessary in order to achieve its own goals. Iran insists that its nuclear program serves exclusively peaceful purposes and denies the construction of nuclear weapons.
According to Iranian sources, hundreds of people were killed in the air strikes. Independent information about the actual extent is hardly possible because the media are strictly controlled.
Retaliatory attacks with missiles from Iran claimed 28 lives in Israel – for the first time, large quantities of Iranian missiles were able to penetrate the Israeli defense system.
A
high-ranking US official confirmed that Trump had negotiated the ceasefire agreement with Netanyahu. Other US government representatives were in contact with Iran. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani obtained Tehran's approval in a phone call, according to an insider.
The ceasefire came into force the morning after an Iranian missile attack on the largest US military base in the Middle East in Qatar – in response to US involvement in the air strikes.
No one was injured in this Iranian counterstrike – the action seemed deliberately chosen in such a way that de-escalation remained possible. Trump thanked Tehran for warning the US in advance to avoid injuries.
Author: CyprusMail.com
Sources: Reuters
Author: CyprusMail.com
Sources: Reuters
