BBC: Iran and Israel say they have halted attacks on each other, after the two countries exchanged fire for the first time since April’s truce.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that his country was holding fire “at the moment”. But he stressed that the struggle against Iran and Hezbollah was “not finished”.
It came hours after Iran’s armed forces said it had stopped operations following the delivery of a “painful response” to Israel.
It promised “more severe and crushing measures” if Israel carried out more strikes, including in Lebanon, where Israeli forces are fighting the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Tehran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in retaliation for a strike on Beirut.
Israel responded in the early hours of Monday morning by targeting what it said were military sites in the Islamic Republic.
In a call with the BBC, US President Donald Trump denied that Netanyahu had defied his wishes by launching strikes.
“No, no. They had already gone. They had already gone. They were already on their way,” he said.
The White House confirmed that Trump had called Netanyahu to discuss the crisis. An Israeli official said Israel had halted its strikes at his request.
Asked how he had persuaded Netanyahu to stop attacking Iran, Trump responded: “All I did is say, ‘We have to use sense’. We’re very close to signing a very powerful deal, a very good deal.
“No nuclear weapons, no nothing. You know, we have to use a lot of common sense. It was fine.”
Trump also said of Netanyahu: “If I tell him to do something, he does it.”
The president told US news outlet Axios he had told Israel’s prime minister he might find himself fighting alone if he went back to war with Iran.
“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,'” Axios quoted him as saying.
In his televised statement on Monday, Netanyahu said he had told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required”.
