The war between Israel and Iran appears to be stretching closer to a third week despite an earlier announcement by President Donald Trump that both sides had agreed to a ceasefire. After the U.S. escalated the conflict by bombing Iranian nuclear sites, the American president is now calling on both sides to restore peace in what could grow into a major Middle East conflict.
Continued attacks after the ceasefire deadline, but hope remains
Reports from the region indicate that Israel has continued to bomb the Iranian capital of Tehran, hours after a ceasefire between the two countries was set to stop the 12-day military exchange. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that his government had struck Iran after the ceasefire start time, claiming it was in retaliation for Iran first violating the agreement by launching missiles at Israel. Iran has denied that it fired any rockets at Israel after the start of the ceasefire. Even with these violations, people within both countries were hopeful that the ceasefire would hold, and a source reported that Netanyahu had agreed to stop additional attacks after speaking with Trump, though it was unclear exactly when this conversation occurred.
Trump blames both sides for breaking ceasefire
The prospect of continued fighting between the two countries has appeared to anger Trump, who announced Monday that he had negotiated “a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” between the warring nations.
Trump has since blamed both sides of the conflict for violating the agreement while urging them both to refrain from more attacks. Trump was especially blunt when speaking to reporters as he prepared to disembark for a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Expressing his unhappiness with Iran and especially with Israel for violating the just-made ceasefire, Trump said, “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.”
Conflict over Iran’s nuclear program
The 12-day conflict began on June 13 when Israel struck several nuclear facilities and military targets inside Iran, citing fear of Iran developing a nuclear weapon, which the country has denied it was doing. Iran has reported over 600 people killed in this conflict with Israel, while Israel reports over two dozen deaths from Iranian attacks since June 13. The United States engaged in a significant escalation of the dispute by striking several Iranian nuclear sites to dismantle the country’s nuclear program. Since then, Iran has reportedly fired missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq and Qatar, though these attacks were repelled mainly, and there have been no American casualties so far. The U.S. has also been concerned about other possible forms of retaliation, such as the activation of sleeper cells within the United States, though this does not appear to have happened so far. The last of these attacks occurred mere hours before the ceasefire announcement.
For now, there is still hope that the ceasefire will remain in effect and Iran and Israel will entirely stop all attacks against one another. Even so, the longer-term goals of peace between these rival nations and within a variety of Middle East conflicts remain far more difficult aims to achieve, particularly given the recent escalations of hostilities.
