Eleven missiles, none of which got through. That is how Iran’s first direct attack on Israel since April ended on Sunday, according to SBS News: every missile intercepted, no casualties reported. The calm that followed did not hold for long.
Israel hit back with airstrikes across Iran. TIME reported bombing in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan, and at a petrochemical facility, while SBS wrote of strikes in the west and center of Iran, with explosions in several cities. It was the first military clash since the truce took effect in April, and the war was then in its 100th day.
A warning about Lebanon
Tehran did not frame the launch as the start of a new offensive. It called the missiles a “warning”, aimed at halting Israeli operations in Lebanon, even though a ceasefire there had just been announced. Shortly before, Israel had hit the southern suburbs of Beirut after Hezbollah rocket fire. Iranian officials cautioned that further attacks would bring broader responses against regional interests.
Lebanon sits at the center of the standoff. Iran insists that any permanent peace deal must deal with the fighting there, SBS said, and TIME cited Lebanon’s Health Ministry in counting over 3,500 people killed in Israeli operations since March.
Trump steps in
Washington moved fast. “Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” President Donald Trump said, according to SBS. After Israel’s response he wrote on social media that the two countries “must immediately stop ‘shooting’.” He also declared that “Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!”
By Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would pause its operations as long as both sides showed restraint. His warning was blunt: “if Iran makes the mistake of resuming attacks on us, we will respond with overwhelming force.” The Revolutionary Guard signaled through state media that it had stopped its own strikes, TIME reported.
The fighting briefly spread. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles at Israel, which were intercepted, and announced “a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea”.
The talks underneath
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said Netanyahu would be left with no option but to accept whatever deal the U.S. brokered with Iran: “I call all the shots.” Israel’s actions did not exactly bear that out, TIME observed. Pakistan’s interior minister had gone to Tehran at the weekend to mediate, and talks were reportedly stuck on questions like freeing frozen Iranian assets. TIME listed other obstacles: Iran’s nuclear program, its uranium stockpile, and its wish to control fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz via an Oman arrangement, which the United States opposes.
Sources
- Netanyahu Says Israel Has Halted Strikes, But Warns It Will Respond to Iran 'With Force' If Fire Resumes (TIME)
- Israel and Iran trade strikes in first clash since truce despite Trump's call for restraint (SBS News)
