Israel, Iran call halt to strikes after trading fire
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The news: Israel and Iran have each announced a halt to military strikes, with both sides warning they may resume hostilities, after the most serious exchange of fire since the April ceasefire threatened to collapse US-led peace negotiations with Tehran.
What they said: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced the end of military operations via semi-official Fars news agency, warning of “a far stronger and more forceful response” if Israel continued strikes in Lebanon, Reuters reported.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said Israel was holding fire on Iran “for now” but would respond “with great force” if attacked again, and said he told Trump that Israel retained the right to self-defence, Bloomberg reported.
Israel’s Channel 12, citing a senior Israeli official, separately reported Israel was stopping at Trump’s request, the BBC reported.
The exchanges began after Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles at northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb targeting Hezbollah. All missiles were intercepted and there were no casualties.
Israel struck military targets in western and central Iran and hit the Karun petrochemical facility in Mahshahr, in Iran’s south-western Khuzestan province, which the IDF said in a statement produced missile components.
Iran’s IRGC said in a statement that it retaliated by firing missiles at a petrochemical plant in Haifa, northern Israel. Fifteen people were injured in Iran
Brent crude, which had surged as much as 5.4% to above USD98 a barrel during the exchanges, fell to around USD94.70 after Iran’s announcement, remaining about 1.7% above Friday’s close.
Trump posted on Truth Social that both sides were “looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE” and told the FT “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
The sources: Reuters, BBC, The Financial Times, Bloomberg
