Donald Trump shocked the world on Saturday night when he authorized strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, seemingly bringing the U.S. into another Middle East war that seemed to be escalating.
Then he shocked the world again on Monday evening around 6 p.m. ET when he announced that Israel and Iran agreed to a “complete and total ceasefire,” set to take effect “approximately 6 hours from now.” The announcement even caught some of the President’s own top officials by surprise, the New York Times reported.
“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 posted on Truth Social. “This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!”
“I don’t believe they will ever be shooting at each other again,” Trump told NBC after announcing the ceasefire.
The deal, however, wasn’t immediately publicly confirmed by either the Iranian or Israeli governments, and the missiles kept flying.
Iranian state media called reports of a ceasefire agreement a “fabrication” at around 4 a.m. local time in Tehran (8:30 p.m. ET) and said Iran would “within a few hours, demonstrate the falsehood of this claim to the Zionist regime through direct and on-the-ground action.”
Around the same time, however, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled that Iran would be open to pausing hostilities if Israel did so first.
As Iran has repeatedly made clear: Israel launched war on Iran, not the other way around,” Araghchi posted on X. “As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations. However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards. The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later.”
“The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute, at 4am. Together with all Iranians, I thank our brave Armed Forces who remain ready to defend our dear country until their last drop of blood, and who responded to any attack by the enemy until the very last minute,” he added.
But Iran’s military operations, according to Israel, continued after that deadline as well as the midnight ET one. Trump’s timeline left some in confusion, as he suggested Iran would “start the ceasefire” at approximately midnight ET, then Israel would “start the ceasefire” about 12 hours later, and “upon the 24th hour” the war would come to “an official end.”
