“The ceasefire is now in effect! Please do not violate it!” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, announcing that Israel and Iran had agreed to stop fighting. The post came hours after Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the largest US military base in the Middle East.
Qatar, the country that had just been targeted, then helped broker the truce.
A staged attack, then a phone call
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the strike was a response to “blatant military aggression” by the United States, which had hit three of Iran’s nuclear sites on Sunday. Qatar said it shot down 18 of the 19 missiles. No casualties were reported. The Guardian described the salvo as symbolic, and said Trump afterward thanked Iran for giving advance warning, which allowed the base to be cleared.
Trump then called Qatar’s emir to ask whether he could have the conversation needed to bring the Iranians along. According to the Guardian, Qatar was told that Iran’s position was that Israel had to stop striking first, and that if Trump delivered an Israeli ceasefire, Tehran would respond in kind. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said Qatar reached out to Iran at Washington’s request.
He had already called the attack on his country “an unacceptable act.” Doha was “taken by surprise,” he said, by a move from what it considers a “neighbourly” country. Qatar’s foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, defended the strike as legitimate under Article 51 of the UN Charter and said it was not aimed at the “brotherly” state of Qatar.
Timetable of the truce
Trump’s post at 22:00 GMT said the ceasefire would start in about six hours. Iran was to begin at 04:00 GMT on Tuesday and Israel 12 hours later, at 16:00 GMT. After Israel had held for 12 hours the truce would count as fully in effect, ending what Trump called the “Twelve Day War.”
On Tuesday, the prime minister’s office in Israel said Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the proposal, claiming Israel had achieved “all objectives.” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had agreed too, though it added that Tehran does not trust Israel and has its “hands on the trigger.”
Accusations of violations
The calm did not last the morning. An Iranian missile struck a building in Beersheba on Tuesday, killing at least four people. The Times of Israel reported that two Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted. Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to “respond forcefully” with strikes on targets in Tehran. Iran’s military denied firing at Israel.
Trump posted a sharp warning: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” He later wrote that Israel would not attack Iran and that the ceasefire was in effect.
Tel Aviv-based commentator Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu’s claim of achieving every objective was “ridiculous,” and that he had little choice but to back the truce given Iranian damage and pressure from Washington.
Why Qatar
The Guardian pointed to Qatar’s long record as a go-between. It talks to the Taliban, Hamas and Iran, and houses Al Udeid free of charge, having spent an estimated $8bn on the base. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff told Tucker Carlson that “what they want is a mediation that’s effective,” because “they’re a small nation and they want to be acknowledged as a peacemaker.”
Sources
- Caught in the crossfire, Qatar again finds itself Middle East peace broker
- Have Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire? What we know
