Trump says 'war in Israel-Iran should end', World News
WASHINGTON -US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (June 14)"this war in Israel-Iran should end," with his comments coming in a social media post on his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Key quote
"The call (between Trump and Putin) lasted approximately 1 hour. He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end," Trump said on Truth Social. Why it's important
Trump's comments mark the first time he has explicitly called for an end to hostilities between Washington's ally Israel and its Middle East rival Iran since Israel began striking Iran late on Thursday US time and early Friday Middle East time.
Iran launched its own retaliatory strikes against Israel and the hostilities have raised alarm in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. Iranian officials have said dozens have been killed in Israel's attacks while Iran's missile volleys killed at least three in Israel on Friday, according to Israeli officials. Context
[[nid:714277]]
Trump said he and Putin mostly discussed the Middle East and spent "much less time" talking about Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump hinted at follow up discussions on the war in Ukraine in the coming week and said in his post that he told Putin that war in Ukraine should also end.
Trump had promised to end the world's hottest conflicts during his election campaign but nearly five months into his second term, with Israel attacking Iran and bloodshed in Gaza and Ukraine unabated, those promises have not yet been met.
The Kremlin separately also confirmed the Trump-Putin call and said they discussed the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Israel and Iran bombard each other as Trump says conflict can easily end
[JERUSALEM/DUBAI] Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday (Jun 15), killing scores, as US President Donald Trump said that the conflict could be ended easily while warning Teheran not to strike any US targets. Israeli rescue teams combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in strikes, using flashlights and sniffer dogs to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, authorities said. Iran has said at least 138 people have been killed in Israel's onslaught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday, half of them children, when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Teheran. The Israeli military warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate after both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said Israel's attacks would intensify, not abate. An official said Israel still had a long list of targets in Iran and declined to say how long the offensive would continue. Those attacked on Saturday evening included two 'dual-use' fuel sites that supported military and nuclear operations, he said. Trump has lauded Israel's offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the US has taken part in it. He warned Teheran not to widen its retaliation to include US facilities or interests. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,' he said in a message on Truth Social. 'However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict.' The US had been negotiating with Iran to try to secure a commitment to severely restrict its nuclear programme, which Iran says is purely civilian but Israel sees as an existential threat because of its weapons potential. Trump gave no details of any possible deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel's attacks had been aimed at sabotaging those talks, which were due to resume in Oman on Sunday before being cancelled. He said the offensive had the support of the US and that Iran was acting only in self-defence. Israel, which has not signed the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, says it aims to stop Iran from developing atomic weapons, and eliminate its ballistic missile capability. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared Iran in breach of its obligations under the NPT. Israeli officials have acknowledged that the strikes are unlikely to halt the programme altogether but voiced hopes that they can bring about a comprehensive US-Iran deal. Iran said Israel had attacked the Shahran oil depot in the capital but that the situation was under control. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Israel had attacked an oil refinery near the capital on Sunday, causing a fire, and Iran's defence ministry, causing minor damage. It also reported the arrest of two people in Alborz province accused of belonging to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. In Israel, the latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11 pm on Saturday, when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters. Around 2.30 am, the military warned of another incoming missile barrage and again urged residents to shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies and interceptor rockets were deployed. The Iran-aligned Houthis who control most of Yemen said they had launched ballistic missiles towards Jaffa near Tel Aviv, the first time an ally of Iran has reportedly joined the fray. At one time, Iran could have expected military support from proxy forces in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. However, 20 months of war against the Hamas militia in Gaza and last year's conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah have decimated Teheran's strongest regional proxies, reducing its options for retaliation. The Israeli military official said Israel had targeted the Houthis' chief of staff overnight. Israeli authorities said at least 10 people had been killed overnight, including three children, and more than 140 injured, by missiles that had hit homes in northern and central Israel. In the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel, four women were killed, including a mother and her two daughters. At least six people were killed by an Iranian missile that hit a cluster of residential buildings including multi-storey apartments in the town of Bat Yam. Shmuel Bar David, 62, returned briefly to what remained of his home there. 'I've lived here for 35 years,' he said, adding his family survived 'by miracle'. In all, at least 13 people in Israel have been killed and more than 350 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks. In the first apparent attack on Iran's energy infrastructure, Tasnim said Iran had partially suspended production at South Pars, the world's biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday. South Pars, off Iran's southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran. Fears about potential disruption to the region's oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 per cent on Friday, even though Israel spared Iran's oil and gas industry on the first day of its attacks. Share markets in the region opened for the first time since the Israeli strikes, with Tel Aviv stocks edging higher after an early dip and Saudi shares down 1.5 per cent. With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran's people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers. REUTERS
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
'Nothing left': Israelis grapple with damage from Iran strike
A damaged building in Rohovot, Israel, on June 15 after an overnight Iranian missile strike. PHOTO: AFP BAT YAM, Israel - A shocked Julia Zilbergoltz said she had never experienced anything like the Iranian missile strike that hit her home in central Israel early June 15. 'I'm stressed and in shock. I've been through hard times in my life, but I've never been in a situation like this,' Ms Zilbergoltz told AFP, as she gathered her belongings and left her apartment building in Bat Yam, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv. 'I was at home, I was sleeping and I didn't hear the siren' warning of an incoming missile attack, she said. She was awoken instead by the loud booms that followed. According to Israeli officials, six people including two children were killed in the strike that destroyed Ms Zilbergoltz's home. A damaged building in Rohovot, Israel, on June 15 after an overnight Iranian missile strike. PHOTO: AFP Yivgenya Dudka, whose home was also hit by the missile on the city of Bat Yam, said: 'Everything was destroyed. There's nothing left. No house. That's it.' In Israel's north, four people were killed earlier when a strike hit the town of Tamra, taking to 13 the death toll in the country since the start of the attacks began on June 13. Israeli television channels broadcast footage of devastation from four sites where missiles struck in the early hours of June 15. Tel Aviv and the nearby city of Rishon Lezion were also hit by missiles from Iran, after Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes that hit military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas in the Islamic republic. 'Miracle we survived' According to data shared by the prime minister's office, missiles hit some 22 locations across Israel. 'I feel very bad. I'm very worried and stressed. I'm in agony for all the dead we have and all the injured people,' said Riky Cohen, a writer from Tel Aviv. 'I'm aware that Iran is very dangerous to Israel and the government wishes to destroy Israel,' she told AFP, saying she supported Israel's military actions. But Ms Cohen said she was also 'very worried' that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government might 'continue the war even though it's not necessary'. In Bat Yam, Mayor Tzvika Brot said in a Facebook post that the missile had caused 'great destruction and damage to dozens of buildings'. In addition to the deaths, Mr Brot said that more than 100 people were injured and others remained trapped under the rubble. 'Teams from the Home Front Command have been working here for several hours now, and will remain here until they find them,' he said. Rescuers and soldiers searching amid the rubble of a heavily damaged building, following an overnight Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam, Israel, on June 15. PHOTO: AFP Shahar Ben Zion, who was trying to clean up the damage to his home in Bat Yam, said it was 'a miracle we survived'. 'I didn't want to go down (to the shelter). My mother convinced me ... there was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,' he said. 'Thank God, it was a miracle we survived.' AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
International Business Times
3 hours ago
- International Business Times
Iran Fires Fresh Round of Missiles and Kills Eight Israeli Civilians as Israel Pounds Tehran With Bombs Escalating Tensions
Israel and Iran exchanged another wave of deadly attacks on late Saturday, resulting in overnight strikes that killed at least eight civilians in Israel and targeted the Iranian Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tehran. Iran launched a massive barrage of missiles on Sunday in retaliation for Israel's earlier preemptive strike earlier in the week, according to The Times of Israel. The deadly attack has forced scores of people to flee to bomb shelters as missiles rained down. Iran's latest offensive on Sunday reportedly hit several buildings in Bat Yam, Rehovot, and Tel Aviv, as well as a shopping center in Kiryat Ekron, according to first responders cited by the outlet. Missiles Raining Down A subsequent wave of Iranian attacks that evening claimed the lives of four people in Bat Yam and left around a dozen others injured, with up to 35 people still missing, according to the outlet. Among the dead were two children, aged 8 and 13, as well as two women—one in her 60s and another in her 70s—first responders reported. Earlier on Saturday, airstrikes killed four Israeli civilians and left 200 others injured, according to The Times of Israel. All four victims were women from the same family. Manar Khatib, her daughters Hala, 20, and Shada, 13, along with a relative also named Manar were killed during bombings in the city of Tamra, the outlet reported. Throughout the day, around 140 people sustained injuries. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) lifted shelter-in-place advisories just before 3:30 a.m. local time, though alerts remained in effect due to an ongoing drone threat, The Times of Israel noted. Iranian strikes targeted several key locations, including Israel's largest oil refinery in the Haifa region, in the country's north. The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot was also hit, with at least one laboratory building catching fire, The New York Times reported. The attacks came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a fiery speech promising to unleash the full power of the Israeli Air Force on Tehran. Not long after his remarks, air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel as Iran launched a "heavy and destructive" barrage of ballistic missiles. No Stopping Israel Meanwhile, Israeli forces hit Iran's central command, inflicting some damage on one of the Ministry of Defense's administrative offices, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. A separate Israeli attack also reportedly targeted the Organization of Defense Innovation and Research, which operates under the ministry. Videos circulating on social media showed smoke billowing from the impacted buildings after the Israel Defense Forces carried out the strike. Iranian state media reported that Israel also hit several key energy sites, including the world's largest natural gas field in South Pars, the Shahran oil depot, and additional fuel storage facilities in Tehran. On Saturday, Iran's largest natural gas facility—the South Pars gas field—caught fire following Israeli airstrikes, while thick smoke was also seen rising from the Abadan oil refinery near the Persian Gulf. Israel has requested U.S. support in its efforts to eliminate Iran's nuclear capabilities, but those appeals have been declined, citing two Israeli officials, according to Axios. Israel's ongoing "widespread strikes" across Iranian territory have placed the remaining Iranian leadership in a tough position—either escalate the conflict against a militarily stronger Israel or pursue diplomatic solutions. Meanwhile, next round of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, scheduled for Sunday in Oman, was called off as global leaders urgently pushed for de-escalation to prevent a full-scale war.
