United States President Donald Trump says Iran and Israel have agreed to a “total and complete” ceasefire.
The US president announced that the ceasefire will take effect on Tuesday, saying it will effectively bring the 12-day war to a close.
“Officially, Iran will start the ceasefire and, upon the 12th hour, Israel will start the ceasefire and, upon the 24th hour, an official end to the 12-day war will be saluted by the world,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“During each ceasefire, the other side will remain peaceful and respectful. 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’.
“This is a war that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the world.”
Trump added that Israel and Iran approached him “almost simultaneously” for peace.
Iranian state TV news channel IRINN, however, said Trump “begged” for a ceasefire
In a post on his X page, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country has “no intention” of continuing the war if Israel stops.
Araghchi added that the cessation of military hostilities is dependent on Israel’s next actions.
“However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards,” he said.
“The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later.”
The ceasefire announcement came hours after Trump had hinted at the possibility of a regime change in Iran.
The US had bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, after a week of hostilities between Israel and Iran.
Iran responded on Monday by launching retaliatory missile strikes at a US air bases in Qatar and Iraq.
