Trump says Israel-Iran ceasefire is in effect after deal initially faltered

PTI, DUBAI, June 24, 2025 : US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was in effect on Tuesday after the deal initially faltered, and the American leader expressed deep frustration with both sides.

Israel had earlier accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect, and the Israeli Finance Minister vowed that “Tehran will tremble.” The Iranian military denied firing on Israel, state media reported, but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel in the morning, and an Israeli military official said two Iranian missiles were intercepted.

Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a NATO summit that, in his view, both sides had violated the nascent agreement. He had particularly strong words for Israel, a close ally, while suggesting Iran may have fired on the country by mistake. But later he said the deal was 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!” the US President said in his Truth Social post.

Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he held off on tougher strike against Iran after speaking to Trump.

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 programme is peaceful.

Many worried the war might widen after the US joined the attacks by dropping bunker-buster bombs over the weekend and Israel expanded the kinds of targets it was hitting. But after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike on a US military base in Qatar on Monday, Trump announced the ceasefire.

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 predawn 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.

As Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before departing for the NATO summit, he expressed disappointment with both sides. Iran “violated it, but Israel violated it too,” Trump said. “I'm not happy with Israel,” the US President added.

Trump's frustration was palpable, using an expletive to hammer home his point. “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 said.

Later, however, he announced that Israel had backed off its threat to attack Tehran and would turn its jets around.