By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Israel struck military targets across western and central Iran early on Monday, defying a direct appeal from President Trump to hold fire, in the most serious breach of a regional ceasefire since fighting paused in April and the exchange that US officials fear could unravel ongoing peace negotiations with Tehran.
Iran responded within hours by launching a second wave of ballistic missiles at Israel, triggering air raid sirens across Tel Aviv and sending residents into shelters. Israel’s military said its defence systems intercepted the incoming missiles. No casualties were reported on either side.
Trump, who had telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday and urged him to refrain from striking Iran, said the escalation would not derail American peace efforts. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he told the Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”
Israel’s strikes hit sites in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, and Tabriz, Iranian state media reported. A petrochemical complex in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran was also hit, according to the Israeli military and Iranian local media — a significant development given that Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, had said Israel was targeting only missile infrastructure and facilities unrelated to the energy sector.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles and confirmed firing in response at Ramat David air base near Nazareth. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport following the Israeli strikes. Brent crude futures rose more than 3 percent in early Monday trading, reaching $96.59 a barrel.
The weekend’s escalation began in Beirut
Hezbollah launched missiles and drones at Israeli army barracks in northern Israel early Sunday. Netanyahu’s office ordered retaliatory strikes on Dahiyeh, a district on Beirut’s southern outskirts and a longtime Hezbollah stronghold — the first Israeli attack in the Beirut area since Washington announced a Lebanon truce framework the previous week. Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed and 20 wounded.
Iran responded to the Beirut strikes by firing roughly 10 ballistic missiles at northern Israel — Tehran’s first direct attack on Israeli territory since the April ceasefire. Israel’s military said all were intercepted or fell in open areas with no casualties.
Trump said Israel’s Beirut strikes were not coordinated with Washington. “I’m not happy about it,” he told Fox News. He then called Netanyahu, urging him not to retaliate for the Iranian missile fire. A senior US official told Axios that Trump believed he had persuaded Netanyahu to wait. “Trump got Bibi to hold off for the time being,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Israel struck Iran hours later.
The exchanges have put American diplomatic efforts under severe strain
Washington and Tehran have been negotiating since April toward a preliminary agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Iran has effectively blockaded the strait since the ceasefire; Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response.
Iran’s chief negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said Sunday that American military bases and Israeli assets were now “legitimate targets,” accusing Washington of giving Israel a green light for the Beirut bombing and of violating commitments over Lebanon.
Tehran has long insisted that any peace deal with the United States must include a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since March. Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,600 people in Lebanon. Israel has refused to link the two conflicts, and Trump said in a Friday interview, broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he was not demanding Lebanon be part of any Iran agreement.
“We’re very close to a deal,” Trump said in the NBC interview, “or I’m going to blow the hell out of them.”
Fighting in Lebanon has also intensified
Before Sunday’s Beirut strikes, Israel had issued forced evacuation orders for most of Tyre, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon and a shelter for thousands of people displaced from surrounding villages. Hezbollah has said it will not disarm unless Israel ends its campaign and withdraws from Lebanese territory. Israel has never halted the Lebanon campaign, which has killed more than 3,600 Lebanese and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes since March.
Israel also said Monday that it had detected a missile launched from Yemen toward its territory — the first such attack since a truce with Houthi rebels took effect April 8 — and that air defense systems had been activated. Missile alert sirens sounded near Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, which hosts American forces.
Trump has said any final agreement with Iran must prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon and that he is under pressure to secure terms tougher than the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under President Barack Obama, which Trump repudiated during his first term. Tehran’s demands include the lifting of American and international sanctions, recognition of its influence over the Strait of Hormuz, and the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets.
A source familiar with American planning told Reuters on Saturday that Washington was considering directing some frozen Iranian assets to Gulf states to compensate for damage Iran had caused. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, called any such diversion illegal and said Tehran would respond.
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