WASHINGTON, June 24 — United States President Donald Trump said today a ceasefire between Israel and Iran is now in place and asked both sides not to break it, raising hopes of an end to the 12-day war even as deadly attacks were reported in both countries.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv agreed to Trump’s ceasefire proposal, declaring that Israel had achieved its goal of removing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat, but warned it would respond forcefully to any violations, his office said in a statement.
“Israel thanks President Trump and the United States for their support in defence and their participation in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat.
“In light of the achievement of the operation’s goals, and in full coordination with President Trump, Israel agreed to the President’s proposal for a mutual ceasefire,” the statement said, adding that Netanyahu will issue another statement later today.
Writing on his Truth Social site earlier, Trump declared: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!”
His announcement came after Iran launched a fresh wave of missiles, killing four people, according to Israel’s ambulance service, and as Iranian authorities reported nine people killed in an attack in northern Iran this morning.
Yesterday, when Trump announced what he called a complete ceasefire to end the war, he appeared to suggest that Israel and Iran will have time to complete missions that are underway, at which point the truce would start in stages.
His declaration came after a sharp escalation of the conflict since Sunday, when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites, prompting Iran to retaliate by firing missiles at a US base in Qatar yesterday
Early today, witnesses said they heard explosions near Tel Aviv and Beersheba in southern Israel. Iran’s semi-official SNN news agency reported Tehran fired its last round of missiles before the ceasefire came into effect.
Israel’s military said six waves of missiles were launched by Iran and Israel’s national ambulance service said four people were killed in Beersheba.
In Iran, the deputy governor of the northern province of Gilan said four residential units were entirely destroyed in a “terrorist attack” this morning, killing nine people and injuring 33, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
It was not immediately clear if the official was referring to an Israeli strike, but Iran’s Nournews reported the killing of nuclear scientist Mohammadreza Sediqi in the attack, saying he was killed in an Israeli strike prior to the ceasefire’s implementation.
A senior White House official said Trump had brokered the ceasefire deal in a call with Netanyahu, and Israel had agreed so long as Iran did not launch further attacks.
“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.
An Iranian official confirmed that Tehran had agreed to a ceasefire, but Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there would be no cessation of hostilities unless Israel stops its attacks.
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United States President Donald Trump talks to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting where Trump announced nuclear talks with Iran, in Washington DC, the US, on April 7, 2025. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
Unanswered questions
A list of unanswered questions remains, not least whether any truce can actually hold between two bitter foes whose years-long “shadow” conflict had erupted into an air war marked by the past 12 days of strikes on each other’s territory.
Abbas Araqchi said today that if Israel stopped its “illegal aggression” against Iranians no later than 4am Tehran time (0030 GMT) today, Iran has no intention of continuing its response afterwards.
“The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later,” Araqchi added in a post on X.
Israel, joined by the US at the weekend, has carried out attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities after alleging Tehran was getting close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies ever having a nuclear weapons program but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that if it wanted to, world leaders “wouldn’t be able to stop us”.
Israel, which is not a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel has not denied or confirmed that.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran’s agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters today.
US Vice-President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff were in direct and indirect contact with the Iranians, a White House official said.
Neither Iran’s United Nations mission nor the Israeli embassy in Washington responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters.
Hours earlier, three Israeli officials had signaled Israel was looking to wrap up its campaign in Iran soon and had passed the message on to the US.
Netanyahu had told government ministers whose discussions ended today not to speak publicly, Israel’s Channel 12 television reported.
Markets reacted favourably to the news.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 per cent late yesterday, suggesting traders expected the US stock market to open with gains today.
US crude futures fell in early Asian trading hours today to their lowest level in more than a week after Trump said a ceasefire had been agreed, relieving worries of supply disruption in the region.
Early notice
Yesterday, Trump said he would encourage Israel to proceed towards peace after dismissing Iran’s attack on an American air base that caused no injuries and thanking Tehran for early notice of the strikes.
He said Iran fired 14 missiles at the US air base, calling it “a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered”.
Iran’s handling of the attack recalled earlier clashes with the US and Israel, with Tehran seeking a balance between saving face with a military response but without provoking a cycle of escalation it can’t afford.
Iran’s attack came after US bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iranian underground nuclear facilities at the weekend, joining Israel’s air war.
The Trump administration maintains that its aim was solely to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, not to open a wider war.
“Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier”.
“Now Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon with the equipment they have because we destroyed it,” Vance said.
Trump has cited intelligence reports that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, without elaborating. However, US intelligence agencies said earlier this year they assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, and a source with access to US intelligence reports told Reuters last week that that assessment hadn’t changed.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump spoke of toppling the hard-line clerical rulers who have been Washington’s principal foes in the Middle East since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel, however, had made clear that its strikes on Evin prison — a jail notorious for housing political prisoners — and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, and its ability to sustain power.
— Reuters
