US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was holding, shortly after he lashed out at both countries and cursed as he accused them of violating the truce.
In a fast-moving series of declarations, the 79-year-old Republican, who was on his way to attend a NATO summit in The Hague, posted on his Truth Social app that “the ceasefire is in effect!”
“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,” Trump wrote.
Minutes earlier, he had castigated Iran and also close US ally Israel for violating a ceasefire he had originally announced late Monday.
The two countries have been “fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing, do you understand that?” the president told reporters at the White House.
Iran violated the ceasefire, “but Israel violated it too,” Trump told reporters on the White House’s South Lawn as he departed for the NATO summit.
“So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning.”
“I’ve got to get Israel to calm down,” he said. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before.”
Trump’s unusually public display of anger at Israel saw the US leader apparently trying to cajole his ally to call off warplanes in real time.
Earlier the same morning, he had posted on Truth Social: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS” – without it being clear which bombs he was referring to.
“IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”
Do you think Iran and Israel will heed Trump’s warnings?
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© Agence France-Presse
