Middle East on knife-edge again as Israel and Iran trade missile attacks

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israel and Iran must stop “shooting,” as the two countries attacked each other for the first time since a ceasefire two months ago. “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’,” Trump said on Truth Social. Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran’s southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets, after Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks. In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire, Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, while a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged. Also on Monday, an Israeli military official said Iran has fired nearly 30 missiles towards Israel since Sunday night. The official also told journalists that Yemen’s Houthi rebels separately fired two missiles at the country. Hours earlier, Trump said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect US peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots”. Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week. However, earlier on Sunday Israel launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week. Iran fired salvoes of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, putting US-Iran peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remained well within reach. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.” A few hours later, Israel’s defence forces said they had struck Iranian military targets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attacks. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that “everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime”. Israel was targeting Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launch sites and infrastructure facilities, he said, adding, “No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel.” No further details of Monday’s damage were immediately available. Iran’s state media have said enemy projectiles have hit five production lines at the plant since the Iran war began on February 28. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Ramat David airbase, near Nazareth. The Israeli military said its defence systems intercepted missiles identified from Iran, while also activating aerial defences against a missile launched from Yemen – marking that country’s first strike on Israel since the ceasefire. Trump spoke with Netanyahu by telephone for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details. Trump told Netanyahu to refrain from further strikes because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” according to a US official quoted by Axios. Associated Press separately quoted a US official as saying that Trump “got Bibi to hold off for the time being”. Trump told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to the negotiating table. He also said that Israel’s strikes in Lebanon earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the US and “I’m not happy about it”. Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire. Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. Iran’s chief peace negotiator, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said US bases and Israeli assets were legitimate targets because of hostile acts, including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon”. Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah had done so. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement on ending the war. “We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News’ Meet the Press in a recorded interview that aired on Sunday. Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Hezbollah, which kept out of truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon. Netanyahu said Israel’s Sunday strikes on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh and a long-time Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing towards Israel. The wider war has been stalled since the US and Israel paused attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports. Though Washington and Tehran have said they were close to a preliminary deal to reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting US bases. Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he was under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated. Tehran’s demands include the lifting of US and international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its sway over the strait. Additional reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

Middle East on knife-edge again as Israel and Iran trade missile attacks

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The US president spoke out on Truth Social after the most serious exchange between the two Middle East nations since an April 8 ceasefire

The US president spoke out on Truth Social after the most serious exchange between the two Middle East nations since an April 8 ceasefire