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10 months ago
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Iran’s foreign minister announced a cease-fire with Israel early Tuesday, hours after President Trump announced the negotiated halt in fighting. But the Israeli government had no immediate comment.
President Trump made the announcement after more than a week of missile strikes between Israel and Iran, and a day after American bombers attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. But about two hours later, it was not clear if the cease-fire had taken effect.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed on social media that the cease-fire had taken effect at 4 a.m. local time, saying that the Iranian military had fought “until the very last minute.”
But an Israeli military spokesman declined to comment, and as the deadline approached, Israel was continuing to strike Iran with missiles in one of the most intense barrages of the war. The Israeli military also said that sirens had been activated in Israel because of a missile launch from Iran.
It’s not unusual for two adversaries to exchange fire in the early hours of a cease-fire, before a total pause takes effect.
Mr. Trump’s assertion came hours after Iran launched missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest American military installation in the Middle East, retaliating for U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites — though giving forewarning to limit the damage. About 10,000 U.S. troops are stationed at Al Udeid, which serves as the regional headquarters for the U.S. Central Command.
Vice President JD Vance said soon after Mr. Trump’s post that the war appeared to be “effectively over” and that there was now an opportunity to “restart a real peace process.”
Mr. Trump’s language was characteristically less cautious.
“It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,” the president wrote on social media. But he said it would not take place until the two countries had “wound down” military missions still in progress, which he said would unfold in phases over a day.
Three diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that top Qatari officials had intervened on behalf of the Trump administration and persuaded Iran to agree to an American cease-fire proposal after being told Israel had also signed on.
Israeli officials had already suggested that the fighting might wind down soon. On Sunday night, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was “very, very close” to achieving its aims in the war against Iran, although he did not provide a timetable for an end to the fighting.
Here’s what else to know:
Economic impact: Oil prices fell and stocks climbed after Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid. Before the attack, investors appeared cautiously optimistic about the potential economic fallout from the U.S. strikes over the weekend, and of any moves Iran might make that would disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point for global oil supplies.
Calls for peace: After European foreign ministers met to discuss Iran, the European Union’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that “the concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge.” The International Atomic Energy Agency held an emergency meeting in Vienna, where the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, warned that “violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels” if Iran, Israel and the United States do not find a path to diplomacy.
River Akira Davis contributed reporting.
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Iran’s strike on an American air base in Qatar on Monday appeared to be a carefully calibrated retaliation to U.S. attacks on its nuclear sites last week. The strike was limited in scope and echoed Iran’s response in 2020 to the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general.
The Iranian strike on Monday targeted Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East, and initially deepened fears that the conflict between Iran and Israel could expand in the region.
But the immediate consequences of the strike, at least for the direct conflict between the United States and Iran, appeared limited: President Trump said 13 of the 14 missiles Iran fired were downed and that there were no injuries or deaths among the roughly 10,000 American troops typically hosted there. A U.S. military spokesman said that the remaining missile had been allowed to land harmlessly. Satellite images captured by Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based Earth imaging company, showed that the base was nearly empty of aircraft ahead of the attack. Mr. Trump said the damage at the base was minimal.
Three Iranian officials said on Monday that their government had provided a warning about the strike to minimize potential casualties — allowing Iran a reprisal for the U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites while offering a way out of the direct conflict for both countries. Mr. Trump also said Iran had provided advance notice of the strike. “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!” he said on social media.
Similarly, Iran sent out an alert before retaliating in 2020 to the U.S. assassination of Iran’s most powerful security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport. It was a staggering blow for Iran and for Iranians, many of whom regarded him as a national hero. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed a “forceful revenge.”
But days later, when Iran fired a series of ballistic missiles at American troops in Iraq, it gave the Iraqi government notice of the impending attack. The office of Iraq’s prime minister at the time, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said in a statement that it had received “an official verbal message” from Iran that its retaliation for the killing of General Suleimani had begun or would begin shortly and would be limited to sites where American troops were present.
The Pentagon said more than two dozen missiles were fired at two military bases in Iraq where American troops were stationed, Al-Asad and Erbil. Shortly after those strikes, both sides appeared to stand down. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on social media that Iran had “concluded proportionate measures in self-defense” and that his country did “not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”
As in Iran’s attack on Al Udeid on Monday, Mr. Trump suggested in 2020 that initial assessments had found minimal damage and few casualties sustained by American forces. The Defense Department later said that more than 100 American service members had sustained traumatic brain injuries from the Iranian strikes on Al-Asad Air Base but that most had returned to duty.
Eric Schmitt and Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.
In Rehovot, Israel, just as people were emerging out of the shelters, a blaring wave of alerts went off on their phones and they all u-turned back in.
The Israeli military said it identified more missiles being fired from Iran toward Israel after telling the public it could leave protected spaces minutes earlier. It called on the public to return to those spaces.
Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said there were no reports of casualties or hits from the latest Iranian missile fire.
Early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said sirens were activated in in the country because of missiles launched from Iran. In Jerusalem, weary Israelis filed into an underground parking lot near a large open-air market after they received alerts on their smartphones about the missile fire.
Iran’s state television is announcing a cease-fire between Iran and Israel. The cease-fire was “imposed on the enemy” because of Iran’s successful missile retaliation attacks, the anchor says.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, seemed to suggest in a post on social media that the cease-fire announced by President Trump, but not confirmed by Israel or Iran, had gone into effect. “The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute, at 4am,” he said in a post on social media that came shortly after he posted that there was no agreement but said that Iran would not continue to respond to Israeli attacks if Israel halted its strikes as of 4 a.m. in Tehran.
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President Trump abruptly announced a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Iran after speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Iranian officials, with Qatar helping to mediate, a senior White House official said Monday.
The official, who was granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly, said Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, played a role in the cease-fire discussions.
The announcement, made minutes after 6 p.m. Eastern time, caught even some of Mr. Trump’s own top administration officials by surprise. Israel has not yet confirmed the cease-fire, and within three hours of Mr. Trump’s announcement, there were fresh attacks from Israel against Iran, raising questions about whether all parties had agreed to it.
Mr. Trump had help in pressing for a cease-fire from Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, who had been leading the efforts over the last two months for a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, the official said.
The three men worked through “direct and indirect” channels to reach the Iranians, the official said. Israel agreed to the cease-fire provided they aren’t subject to further attacks from Iran, the official said.
The official credited the U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites on Saturday with setting the conditions for a cease-fire discussion.
The official did not say what conditions Iran may have agreed to, including whether it answered questions about the whereabouts of its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in a post on social media that there was no cease-fire agreement but that if Israel stopped its attacks on Iran, Iran would also stop firing. “As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations,” the post said. “However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.”
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Qatar intervened on behalf of the Trump administration and persuaded Iran to agree to a cease-fire with Israel, according to three diplomats briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
President Trump said on social media Monday night that a cease-fire was imminent after more than a week of missile attacks between the two nations.
But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to contradict Mr. Trump hours later, saying there was no agreement “as of now.” He also suggested that Iran would be willing to lay down arms if Israel stopped “its illegal aggression against the Iranian people” by 4 a.m. in Tehran.
An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment, and as that deadline approached, Israel was continuing to strike Iran with missiles in one of the most intense barrages of the war.
The three diplomats said that Mr. Trump had told Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, that Israel had signed off on an American cease-fire proposal. They added that the president had asked that Qatar help bring Iran on board.
The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, then persuaded Iran to agree to the proposal in a call with the Iranian leadership, the diplomats said.
The exact details of what the diplomats said Israel and Iran agreed to remain unclear. Mr. Trump said on social media that the cease-fire would not take place until after the two countries “wound down” military missions in progress, a process he said would unfold in phases over a day.
On Monday evening, Iran attacked Al Udeid Air Base, a large U.S. military installation in Qatar, firing a fusillade of missiles at the site. The deal, if confirmed, would indicate that the wealthy Gulf emirate was simultaneously condemning Iran for its attack on Al Udeid and working to persuade the Islamic Republic to agree to a cease-fire.
Qatari officials have been key interlocutors in the indirect Gaza cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas, and Qatar has long worked to present itself as capable of narrowing the gaps between warring parties.
Ronen Bergman contributed reporting.
While Israel has not yet confirmed President Trump’s cease-fire announcement, Israeli Air Force jets — possibly anticipating that such a declaration will be made soon — are striking dozens of targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, according to two Israeli defense officials.
Israel’s military urged the evacuation of central Tehran, an area where municipal offices, the Central Bank and National Bank are located, along with some military and intelligence headquarters. Residents of Tehran are reporting intense explosions in the area.
Tehran is under intense Israeli strikes tonight, according to residents speaking live in a town hall on the application ClubHouse, who have described loud and continuous explosions. They say they can see and hear jets flying overhead. “The Mehrabad airport nearby is being struck back to back,” Mostafa Shams, a journalist in Tehran, told the forum. “I can see the jets and hear them.”
In a legally mandated memo sent to Congress on Monday, President Trump said he had authorized strikes on three of Iran’s most important nuclear sites last week “to advance vital United States national interests, and in collective self-defense of our ally, Israel, by eliminating Iran’s nuclear program.”
The strikes were carried out without congressional authorization and with little consultation with leaders on Capitol Hill, which angered many Democrats and some Republicans who believe Congress should play a more significant role in determining when American troops wade into war.
The memo asserted that the strikes were carried out under the authority granted to the president to uphold his responsibility to “to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad as well as in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests.”
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The Israeli military said early on Tuesday morning that it had intercepted three drones launched from Iran toward Israel before they crossed into Israeli territory. It also said that it had intercepted a drone sent from Iran in the southern Golan Heights in northern Israel.
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, said that he would not see a need to bring his bipartisan resolution to reassert Congress’s war powers to the floor in the case of a lasting a cease-fire between Israel and Iran. “If the cease-fire holds and we’re not engaged in hostilities, then it’s a moot point,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “I wouldn’t need to bring it to the floor. I just spoke with the speaker about that.”
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The outlines of a plan to suspend Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, have been approved by the national security committee of Iran’s Parliament, state media said on Monday, citing the committee spokesman. The I.A.E.A. declared earlier this month that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. Its chief, Rafael Grossi, urged a return to negotiations during an emergency meeting on Monday, saying that Iran needed to declare any transfer of nuclear materials out of safeguarded facilities and that a cessation of hostilities was required for Iran to let I.A.E.A. teams assess the sites bombed by the United States.
The State Department said on Monday evening that it had begun running evacuation flights from Israel two days earlier. Since Saturday, it said, seven such flights have left Israel with a total of about 250 U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and their accompanying immediate family members.So far, the State Department said, flights have arrived in Athens, Rome and Larnaca, on the southeast coast of Cyprus.
Oil prices are now back to where they were two weeks ago, before Israel attacked Iran. The U.S. benchmark is trading just above $65 a barrel, down almost $10 since Friday.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military declined to comment on Trump’s statement about a cease-fire.
Only hours after Iran unsuccessfully fired missiles at the U.S. base in Qatar, President Trump is claiming in a Truth Social post that a cease-fire has been reached between Israel and Iran, and that the war will be over. We are still trying to verify this from both the Iranian and Israeli sides and have no further details yet. This all comes one day after Trump called for regime change and two days after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites. So this is all a fluid and unclear situation.
The Qatari Civil Aviation Authority announced the reopening of Qatar’s airspace hours after Iran launched a missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base, a large American military installation in the Gulf emirate.
A Defense Department official said that American air defenses in Qatar intercepted the 13 Iranian missiles that President Trump said were knocked down in Monday’s attack. One other missile was allowed to land harmlessly. A U.S. official said that American troops in Iraq and Syria remain on alert for attacks by Iran-backed militias there.
President Trump’s first public comments since Iran’s missile attack on a U.S. base in Qatar indicated that he does not plan to retaliate. Instead, in a series of posts on Truth Social, the president framed the Iranian barrage as “a very weak response” and a gesture toward peace. In all-caps he posted “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!” He minimized the damage done and even thanked the Iranians for “giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”
“Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same,” he added. Taken together, his posts suggest that Trump currently has no interest in a more protracted war to topple Iran’s leadership, despite some of his recent statements.
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Air traffic over the Gulf states is gradually resuming after Iran’s retaliatory attack on a U.S. base in Qatar, according to analysis by Flightradar24, a flight tracking website. Kuwait and Bahrain have reopened their airspace, state news media in both countries reported.
The Israeli military said in a statement late on Monday that it had carried out a series of airstrikes on targets in western Iran, including underground military infrastructure used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for storing missiles and missile launchers. Earlier on Monday, the military said, Israeli warplanes also struck and destroyed a missile launcher “intended for use against” Israeli aircraft.
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The American air base in Qatar targeted by Iranian missiles on Monday is the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East and serves as the regional headquarters for the U.S. Central Command. About 10,000 troops are stationed there.
The installation, Al Udeid Air Base, is heavily fortified by an array of air defenses. The U.S. military has been using Al Udeid since the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when it positioned planes there to target the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Two years later, Al Udeid became the main U.S. air operations hub in the region.
U.S. commanders used the base to coordinate a wide variety of missions during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. The Air Force has deployed a wide variety of aircraft there, from advanced fighters and long-range bombers to drones, transport planes and in-flight refueling tankers.
It also became the central evacuation point for tens of thousands of Afghans and Americans who fled Afghanistan in 2021 when the U.S. military withdrew.
The Combined Air Operations Center at the base helps project U.S. air power across a vast region encompassing 21 countries, from Northeast Africa to Central and South Asia, according to the Air Force.
Qatar, which saw the United States as its main protector in the Middle East, finished building the base in 1996, hoping to encourage the deployment of the U.S. military there. Over the years, Qatar has spent at least $8 billion to develop the base, which its military also uses alongside the British Royal Air Force, as part of its efforts to build up its partnership with the United States.
The modernization and expansion of the base has allowed a number of key U.S. military commands to operate out of it. Along with the U.S. Central Command, the base also hosts command facilities for American special forces.
The base’s location was carefully guarded until 2013, when Chuck Hagel, then the defense secretary, lifted the veil of secrecy.
President Trump visited Al Udeid last month while on a four-day tour of Gulf States. There, in a rally-like atmosphere, he spoke about Qatar’s purchases of American military supplies and told several of his favorite stories, including one about his trip to Iraq during his first term.
“I have nothing else to do,” Mr. Trump told U.S. troops from a stage at the base, “so let’s have a little fun.”
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Federal officials are increasingly concerned about the possibility of Iran or its supporters retaliating on American soil after the bombing of nuclear sites in Iran by U.S. forces.
In an internal email on Sunday, top officials at the F.B.I. cautioned that Iran and its proxies have “historically targeted U.S. interests in response to geopolitical events, and they are likely to increase their efforts in the near term.”
They urged field offices to monitor their collection platforms and stay in close contact with the Defense Department, including the National Guard, “who may be targeted for retaliation” while “specific attention should be paid to” U.S. military facilities connected to the strikes in Iran.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said that more police officers would be on duty around religious, cultural and diplomatic sites “out of an abundance of caution,” given the situation in the Middle East.
Iran, which the United States has designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, has long backed a network of militias across the Middle East in an attempt to extend its influence across the region and undermine Israel. Those militias include Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, who control parts of Yemen.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security issued a security bulletin stating that the “ongoing Iran conflict” had elevated security concerns in the country and adding that cyberattacks by pro-Iranian hackers were likely.
“The likelihood of violent extremists in the homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the homeland,” the bulletin said.
It noted that “cyberactors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against U.S. networks.”
Such advisories are typical after American forces take significant military action overseas, reflecting a worry by national security officials that people living in the United States may be angry or compelled to lash out. The relationship between Iran and the United States is particularly fraught in recent years, particularly given that U.S. officials have accused Iran of trying to assassinate American officials, as well as Iranian dissidents in the country.
In a conference call on Sunday, D.H.S. and F.B.I. officials cautioned state and local law enforcement officials of the possibility of threats to U.S. communities. During the call, the nonprofit organization Secure Community Network, which provides safety consulting and training for Jewish facilities across North America, said that the level of threats was very high.
“Iran would not strike in the U.S. unless a red line was crossed,” said Michael Masters, the group’s chief executive, according to a summary of the call. “That red line was assessed to be direct military engagement, especially targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. That red line has now been crossed.”
The bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security said that the Iran-Israel war “could also motivate violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators seeking to attack targets perceived to be Jewish, pro-Israel, or linked to the US government or military in the homeland.”
Former F.B.I. officials said the bureau was well versed in these situations and would ask informants to find out if there were any new threats while scrutinizing existing cases, including possible surveillance of those being investigated.
In its email on Sunday, the F.B.I. said to prioritize tips potentially associated with Iran or its proxies.
Carlos Fernandez, a former senior F.B.I. agent in charge of New York’s counterterrorism division, said the agents had to take seriously the possibility of sleeper cells in the United States, especially since Iran has been accused of plotting to kill President Trump before the election and a human-rights activist in Brooklyn.
Indeed, the bureau has also uncovered members of Hezbollah, who trained in Lebanon but then moved to the United States, where they were eventually arrested in Michigan and New York and charged with terrorism.
“It’s very real,” he said. “It’s a legitimate concern.”
