U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the ceasefire announced by him earlier was in effect, soon after Iranian state-linked media said Tehran had fired its “last round” of missiles at Israel.
“THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social around 1:00 a.m. stateside.
Iran had launched a fresh barrage of missiles at Israel as the ceasefire deadline announced by Trump neared.
Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom said that there were three fatalities.
There was confusion about the deadline for the ceasefire, with former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro asking in a post on X whether Israel had more time to wind up its operations.
“Very confusing! Does Israel have 12 more hours to strike based on his first announcement? Or are they supposed to be in ceasefire now? Even after the deaths in Beersheva and Iran’s barrage after the deadline? No one knows! PRECISION IN WAR AND PEACE MATTERS,” Shapiro said.
Earlier on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi had refuted claims that Tehran had agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel, while signaling his country was ready to stop hostilities.
Araghchi’s statement came after Trump told NBC News in an exclusive phone interview Monday night that the Israel-Iran ceasefire will last “forever.”
“As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations,” Araghchi said in a social media post on X at 4:16 a.m. local time, adding that if Israel stopped its aggression “no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.”
That followed Trump’s assertion of an impending ceasefire.
“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Israel has not publicly confirmed that they have accepted Trump’s ceasefire timeline.
Earlier in the day, Trump thanked Iran for giving the United States advance notice of the coming missile strike on America’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
The notice, he wrote on social media, “made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”
That finding helped inform the U.S. Embassy in Doha’s decision to lift a shelter-in-place order issued ahead of the attack.
Qatar reopened its civil airspace just six hours after the attack.
U.S. stock market indexes closed higher Monday on optimism that Iran’s retaliation for U.S. bombings of its nuclear facilities would be limited to the missile attack.
Likewise, oil prices fell as traders breathed a sigh of relief after days of concerns that a broader conflict could force tankers to avoid vital shipping lanes like the Strait of Hormuz.
CNBC reporters are covering the Middle East conflict on air and online, reporting from Washington, D.C., London, Dubai, San Francisco and Englewood Cliffs, N.J, and Singapore.
