President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted both Israel and Iran for what he said were violations of ceasefire terms that had been agreed upon hours earlier.
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump claimed “[Iran] violated [the ceasefire] but Israel violated it, too. … I’m not happy with Israel.”
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” the president added.
The Iran-Israel ceasefire, scheduled to go into effect Tuesday morning, followed 12 days of hostilities between the two long-time enemies that ignited concerns of a larger, regional war.
Israel accused Iran on Tuesday of violating terms of the ceasefire with a missile launch into Israeli airspace, an attack Iran’s state media denied. Iran then accused Israel of three waves of attacks.
Officials from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli strikes, which reportedly targeted an Iranian radar, were scaled back after an appeal from the White House.
“Following President Trump’s conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel refrained from additional attacks,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Trump said Tuesday that despite the exchange of salvos, the ceasefire is in effect.
“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran.”
President Trump first announced terms for the ceasefire Monday following Tehran’s limited retaliatory missile strike on the U.S. Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Iran reportedly warned the U.S. about the strike, which came in response to the U.S. bombing of the regime’s nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. The Iranian strikes resulted in no casualties, according to reports.
President Trump took to Truth Social to call Iran’s attack on Al-Udeid a “very weak response” and said “they’ve gotten it all out of their system.”
Al-Udeid is home to the Air Force’s Combined Air Operations Center and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing.
Trump’s comments Tuesday morning came as he prepared to board Marine One and depart for the June 24-25 NATO Summit at The Hague.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
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