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A shaky ceasefire began to take hold between Israel and Iran on Tuesday under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, raising hopes for an end to the biggest ever military confrontation between the Middle East arch-foes.
Trump scolded both sides for early violations of the truce he announced at 0500 GMT, but directed especially stinging criticism at Washington’s close ally Israel over the scale of its strikes, telling it to “calm down now”.
Iran launched a limited missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites but indicating it was prepared to step back from escalating tensions in the volatile region. U.S. officials reported no casualties.
Qatar condemned the attack on Al Udeid Air Base attack, but said it successfully intercepted the short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
The United States launched strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, President Trump announced Saturday evening, calling them a “spectacular military success.”
“The U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear assemblies in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan,” President Trump said in a national address from the White House Saturday night. “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
The Israeli military has claimed it has launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iran’s Bandar Abbas, this time targeting its drone storage and weapons facilities.
Israeli forces are “currently striking UAV storage facilities and a weapons facility in southwestern Iran in the area of Bandar Abbas”, a military statement said, according to AFP.
Iran and Israel traded missiles and airstrikes on Saturday, the day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against its old enemy, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon.
In Tehran, Iranian state TV reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex.