Trump announces Israel-Iran ceasefire hours after Iran attacks largest U.S. base in Middle East
Beirut – President Trump announced on Monday that Israel and Iran had reached a cease-fire just a few hours after Iran had fired missiles during the largest American military installation in the Middle East. Iran had described the attack on “powerful” reprisals for the American bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.
Publishing on his social platform of truth around 6 pm, the East, Trump wrote: “Officially, Iran will start the ceasefire and, at the 12th hour, Israel will start the ceasefire and, at the 24th hour, an official end of the 12-day war will be hailed by the world. During each of the ceasefire, the other part will remain peaceful and respectful. ”
After congratulating the governments of the two countries, Trump said: “It was a war that could have continued for years and destroyed the whole Middle East, but that is not the case, and never will! God bless Israel, may God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America and God bless the world! “
Trump added that the conflict should be called “12 -day war”.
A few hours earlier in the Middle East, the sirens sounded in American military installations in Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia while Iran launched a volley of missiles at Al Udeid air base, which Trump only visited five weeks ago.
The Iranian army said – in a television announcement on state television with martial music – the beginning of what it described as “a powerful and successful response from Iran’s armed forces to American aggression”.
Before Trump published on a ceasefire, the supreme chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published a notable declaration for his relatively softer tone compared to the rhetoric used by other civil servants. “We do not injure anyone,” wrote Khamenei. “We will not accept any harassment on the part of anyone in any case. We will not subject anyone’s harassment. It is the logic of the Iranian nation. “
Trump had declared earlier on Monday that Iran had the United States warned of the attack.
“I am happy to announce that no American was injured and that practically no damage was made,” he wrote on his social platform Truth. “Most importantly, they have left everything from their” system “, and there will be hope, more hatred. I would like to thank Iran for having given us a notice, which has allowed no life to lose, and no one to be injured. ”
Trump added: “Iran can now now proceed with peace and harmony in the region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”
President Trump speaks at the Al Udeid air base on May 15 in Doha, Qatar.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
Al Udeid, a sprawling installation of 60 acres in the southwest of the Qatari capital of Doha which houses some 10,000 American troops, welcomes the headquarters before the American central command, which directs combat operations over a region of 21 nations extending from North East Africa to South Asia. British and other foreigners also operate there, alongside the Qatari air army.
Doha residents have pointed out that their windows flash while the missiles expressed themselves before exploding near Al Udeid, while others have published a video on social networks representing the missiles that ended in the night sky.
The spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Majed Al Ansari, in an article on social networks, said that Qatar’s air defenses had managed to intercept the missiles, that the base had been evacuated earlier and that there had been no injury or victim.
Shortly after the attack, the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, which is supervised by Khamenei, published a statement claiming that the targeting of the base “constitutes no threat to our friendly and fraternal country, Qatar”.
The declaration added that Al Udeid is far from the population centers and that it has been affected by the same number of bombs used in the United States on Iranian nuclear installations – a signal, say observers, which Tehran considers himself as an abition and would not take other measures.
This placantial language was encountered by a furious response from Qatari officials, who qualified the attack on “blatant violation” of Qatar’s sovereignty and its airspace.
“We claim that Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in an equivalent manner to the nature and scale of this cheeky attack, in accordance with international law,” said Al Ansari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But he warned that the continuation of the path of “climbing actions” would lead to “catastrophic consequences” and that Qatar had warned against the dangers of the Israel campaign on Iran.
“We are calling for the immediate cessation of all military actions and a serious return to the table and the negotiating dialogue,” he said.
An anonymous American defense official quoted by CNN said that Al Udeid had been attacked “by short -range and medium -range ballistic missiles from Iran”. Other American bases have come to the full alert, according to local media, while a certain number of nations of the Persian Gulf have closed their airspace, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, which had closed its sky before the attack on Al Udeid. At midnight, all the airspace closings were reversed.
Earlier in the day, the United States Embassy in Qatar asked American citizens to “take shelter” of what he said was an “abundance of prudence”.
Strikes have been Iran’s second attack on American forces since 2020, when she has drawn more than a dozen missiles on the American bases in Iraq in retaliation for Trump ordering the assassination during her first mandate of the Iranian generation Qassem Suleimani – a decision which was to trigger the furious retraction which was revolutionized by the symbolic.
The Monday dam intervenes after the repeated threats of Iranian officials of a painful response for the United States’s strike on Fordo’s nuclear installation on Sunday, even though Israel launched a series of air strikes on Monday morning targeting the access roads to the flagship installation of Iranian uranium.
Israel also extended the scope of his attacks to far beyond the nuclear and military objectives on which he had concentrated when he launched his campaign on June 13. The Israeli army said on Monday that it had struck Evin prison, a notorious prison for his incarceration of anti-government dissidents; the headquarters of the internal security of the body of the Islamic revolutionary guard; and its paramilitary wing.
At least 400 people have been killed in Iran since Israel attacked and more than 3,000 injured, according to Iranian officials. Groups of observers believe that the number of deaths is more than double state figures.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 24 people had been killed and 1,361 others injured in reprisal attacks. About 15,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.
Companies operating in the region have already started taking precautions against a broader conflagration.
On Monday, the Iraqi Basra Oil Co. state, said British Petroleum, Eni and Totalengies evacuated foreign staff working in the Iraqi oil fields. The data on marine traffic reveals certain oil tankers avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, a vital navigable track that Iran threatens to close. And many airlines – regional and European – remain reluctant to share sky ways with flying ammunition.
Trump’s visit to Al Udeid in May was part of a visit to the Middle East, during which he said that the United States and Iran had “sort of” accepted a nuclear agreement. In Al Udeid on May 15, he said that “my priority is to end conflicts, not to start them, but I will never hesitate to exercise American power if it is necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners.”
