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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel appeared to hold Tuesday after initially faltering, and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed frustration with both sides, saying they had fought “for so long and so hard” that they didn’t know what they are doing.
After the truce was supposed to take effect, Israel accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace, 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!” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he held off on tougher strikes against Iran after speaking to Trump.
A dozen tense days
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 program is peaceful.
If the truce holds, it will provide a global sense of relief after the U.S. intervened by dropping bunker-buster bombs on nuclear sites over the weekend — a move that risked further destabilizing the volatile region.
Trump phoned Netanyahu after the American bombing on Sunday and told him not to expect additional U.S. military attacks and that he should seek a diplomatic solution with Iran, a senior White House official said.
Trump’s position was that the U.S. had removed any imminent threat posed by Iran, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about sensitive diplomatic talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Israel followed up the U.S. air attacks by expanding the kinds of targets it was hitting.
After Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, Trump announced the ceasefire.
A protracted conflict could have a broad economic impact if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel.
China, which is Iran’s largest trading partner and only remaining oil customer, condemned the U.S. attacks and said it was concerned about a “spiral of escalations” without a ceasefire.
Trump suggested the ceasefire would allow Iranian oil to continue to flow, saying on social media that China could keep purchasing crude from Iran.
Israel accuses Iran of violating the truce. Iran denies allegation
The deal got off to a rocky start.
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.
Trump’s frustration with the early morning strikes was palpable as he spoke to reporters before departing for the Hague. He said both sides had violated the agreement and used 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.
Breakthrough announced after hostilities spread
Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire with Iran, in coordination with Trump, after the country achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said late Tuesday that Israel’s war had brought Iran’s nuclear program “to ruin” in a historic victory.
Israel took out top generals and nuclear scientists and destroyed nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and the Arak heavy water reactor, Netanyahu said. He thanked Trump for his help.
It’s unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.
Trump said Tuesday that he wasn’t seeking regime change in Iran, two days after floating the idea himself in a social media post.
“I don’t want it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Regime change takes chaos and, ideally, we don’t want to see much chaos.”
Before the ceasefire was announced, Israel’s military said Iran launched 20 missiles toward Israel. Police said they damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba. First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more. At least 20 people were injured.
Outside, the shells of burned out cars littered the streets. Broken glass and rubble covered the area. Police said some people were injured while inside their apartments’ reinforced safe rooms, which are meant to withstand rockets but not direct hits from ballistic missiles.
The attack followed a limited Iranian missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for earlier American bombing of its nuclear sites. The U.S. was warned by Iran in advance, and there were no casualties.
Elsewhere, U.S. forces shot down drones attacking the Ain al-Assad base in the desert in western Iraq and a base next to the Baghdad airport, while another one crashed, according to a senior U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
No casualties were reported, and no group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Iraq. Some Iran-backed Iraqi militias had previously threatened to target U.S. bases if the U.S. attacked Iran.
Conflict has killed hundreds
In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel.
The U.S. has evacuated some 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military and charter flights that began over the weekend, a State Department official said.
There are roughly 700,000 American citizens, most of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, believed to be in Israel.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Gabe Levin in Dubai; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Sam Mednick in Beersheba, Israel; Amir Vahdat in Iran; Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak in Washington; and Seung Min Kim in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
