Trump’s Iran-Israel Truce Gains Ground, UN Seeks Nuclear Access

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing the White House in Washington, DC, on June 24. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Photo by Chip Somodevilla /Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/G

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(Bloomberg) — Israel and Iran appeared to be honoring a ceasefire agreement unexpectedly announced by Donald Trump overnight, after the US president reacted angrily to reports of early breaches of the deal by both sides.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to hold off on further strikes after a conversation with Trump on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office. Israel had destroyed a radar complex near Tehran after the truce came into effect as of 7 a.m. local time, in response to three missiles from Iran, the prime minister’s office said. 

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Reports of attacks by both sides in the early hours of the peace accord triggered a furious reaction from Trump, who had declared the war over late Monday after 12 days of fighting. “DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS,” read one post on his Truth Social platform, directed at Israel in particular. “IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION.”

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Trump’s bid to end the 12-day conflict, which threatened to escalate into a wider regional war and upend energy markets, came just two days after he ordered US forces to join the Israeli attack by bombing Iranian nuclear sites. 

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A limited Iranian retaliation, targeting an American base in Qatar, was telegraphed in advance to avoid casualties. The prospect of de-escalation has triggered a slump in oil prices — erasing almost all of the increase since the conflict broke out. 

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Still, the truce remains fragile as the focus shifts back to nuclear diplomacy with Iran. A stated aim of Israel’s campaign, and Trump’s decision to take part in it, was to destroy Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. The extent of the damage to the Islamic atomic capabilities remains unclear and the whereabouts of a stockpile of highly enriched uranium is unknown.  

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The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Tuesday welcomed the ceasefire and said it’s ready to resume work in Iran as soon as possible. That would involve inspectors “going back to the country’s nuclear sites and verifying the inventories of nuclear material – including more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60% — which they last verified a few days before the Israeli air strikes began,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said. 

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Early Tuesday, Trump’s frustration with ceasefire breaches boiled over when he stopped to take questions from reporters before heading to a NATO summit in The Hague. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” he told them on the South Lawn of the White House, before marching toward the presidential helicopter.  

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The president’s tone later cooled. In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the summit, Trump reiterated what he’d maintained was the US goal in nuclear talks with Iran. “They’re not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.