Trump announces Israel-Iran ceasefire, World News
WASHINGTON/DOHA/ISTANBUL - US President Donald Trump said that a "complete and total" ceasefire between Israel and Iran will go into force with a view to ending the 12-day conflict between the two nations, moments after both sides threatened new attacks.
While an Iranian official confirmed that Tehran had agreed to a ceasefire, there was no immediate comment yet from Israel.
A senior White House official said Israel had agreed so long as Iran does not launch further attacks and that Trump brokered the deal in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump appeared to suggest that Israel and Iran would have some time to complete any missions that are underway, at which point the ceasefire would begin in a staged process.
"On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, 'THE 12 DAY WAR'," he wrote on his Truth Social site.
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran's agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Tuesday.
Trump told Qatar's emir that Israel had agreed to the ceasefire, according to the official.
Neither Iran's UN mission nor the Israeli embassy in Washington immediately responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters.
Hours earlier, three Israeli officials had signaled Israel was looking to wrap up its campaign in Iran soon and had passed the message on to the United States.
Netanyahu had told government ministers whose discussions ended early on Tuesday not to speak publicly, Israel's Channel 12 television reported.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 per cent late on Monday, suggesting traders expect the US stock market to open with gains on Tuesday.
US crude futures fell in early Asian trading hours on Tuesday to their lowest level in more than a week after Trump said a ceasefire had been agreed, relieving worries of supply disruption in the region. END TO THE FIGHTING?
There did not appear to be calm yet in the region.
The Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings in less than two hours to residents of areas in the Iranian capital Tehran, one late on Monday and one early on Tuesday.
Israeli Army radio reported early on Tuesday that alarms were activated in the southern Golan Heights area due to fears of hostile aircraft intrusion.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said he would encourage Israel to proceed towards peace after dismissing Iran's attack on an American air base that caused no injuries and thanking Tehran for the early notice of the strikes.
Iran's attack came after US bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-busters on Iranian underground nuclear facilities at the weekend, joining Israel's air war against Iran in a conflict that has entered its 12th day.
Much of Tehran's population of 10 million has fled after days of bombing.
The Trump administration maintains that its aim was solely to destroy Iran's nuclear programme, not to open a wider war.
But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington's principal foes in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel, however, had made clear that its strikes on Evin prison - a notorious jail for housing political prisoners - and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, and its ability to sustain power.
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CNA
26 minutes ago
- CNA
Shares rally, oil slumps as Iran-Israel ceasefire goes into effect
SYDNEY :Oil tumbled 4 per cent, global shares surged and the dollar dropped on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump said a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was in place, a dramatic turnaround after the U.S. bombed Iran's nuclear sites over the weekend. Brent futures had already slid 7 per cent on Monday and U.S. shares jumped after Iran made a token retaliation against a U.S. base and signalled it was done for now. With the immediate threat to the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane seemingly over, the global benchmark was last at $67.68 a barrel, its lowest since June 11. U.S. crude futures dropped 3.6 per cent to $66.02 a barrel. "With markets now viewing the escalation risk as over, market attention is likely to shift towards the looming tariff deadline in two weeks' time," said Prashant Newnaha, senior Asia-Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities. "Our sense is that the quicker than expected resolution to the Middle East conflict leads to expectations for a swifter resolution on tariffs and trade deals." But for now, equity markets were basking in the eased geopolitical tensions. Risk assets rallied, with S&P 500 futures up 1 per cent and Nasdaq futures 1.3 per cent higher. Europe's Stoxx 600 gained 1.3 per cent in early trade, with travel stocks, such as airlines surging 4 per cent while oil and gas names shed 3 per cent. Earlier in the day MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 2.2 per cent while Japan's Nikkei rallied 1.1 per cent. On trade, two sources told Reuters that Japan's tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa was arranging his seventh visit to the United States for as early as June 26, aiming to end tariffs that are hurting Japan's economy. Government bonds largely looked through the news. The war has been a challenge for bond traders to process as they have had to weigh safe haven flows against the effect of higher oil prices on inflation. RATE CUTS APPROACHING? Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the time to cut interest rates was getting nearer as risks to the job market may be on the rise. That followed Fed Governor Christopher Waller saying on Friday he would consider a rate cut at the July 29-30 meeting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will have his own chance to comment when appearing before Congress later on Tuesday and, so far, has been more cautious about a near-term easing. Markets still only imply around a 22 per cent chance the Fed will cut at its next meeting on July 30, but a September cut is near to fully priced. Ten-year Treasury yields were mostly steady at 4.33 per cent, having declined 5 bps overnight. Germany's 10-year yield was flat at 3.52 per cent News of the ceasefire saw the dollar extend an overnight retreat and slip 0.7 per cent to 145.43 yen , having come off a six-week high of 148 yen overnight. The euro rose 0.2 per cent to $1.1602 on Tuesday, having gained 0.5 per cent overnight. The yen and euro benefited from the slide in oil prices as both the EU and Japan rely heavily on imports of oil and liquefied natural gas, while the United States is a net exporter. The risk-on mood saw gold prices ease 1 per cent to $3,333 an ounce.
AsiaOne
39 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Big questions loom over Trump's announcement of Israel-Iran ceasefire deal, World News
WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump sent US bombers to strike Iran's nuclear sites last weekend, he was betting he could help ally Israel cripple Tehran's nuclear programme while keeping his long-standing vow to avoid entanglement in a protracted war. Just days later, Trump's surprise announcement on Monday (June 23) of an Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement suggests he may have bombed Tehran's rulers back to the negotiating table. But a long list of big unanswered questions remains, not least whether any ceasefire can actually take effect and hold between two bitter foes whose years-long "shadow" conflict had erupted into an air war marked by the past 12 days of strikes on each other's territory. Also still unknown and unmentioned in Trump's effusive social media post announcing an imminent "Complete and Total CEASEFIRE" are the terms the two sides have agreed to; whether the US and Iran will revive failed nuclear talks; and the fate of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium that many experts believe may have survived the US and Israeli bombing campaign. "The Israelis have accomplished much of their objectives... and Iran was looking for an off-ramp," said Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy US national intelligence officer for the Middle East. "The US hopes this is the beginning of the end. The challenge is whether there is a strategy for what comes next." Questions also remain about what has actually been agreed to, even as Trump's declaration raised hopes for the end of a conflict that has prompted fears of a broader regional war. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel of a ceasefire deal, and the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israel in the early hours of Tuesday. Four people were killed in a missile strike on a building in Beersheba, Israel's ambulance service said. Soon after, Trump said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran was "now in effect" and urged both countries to not violate it. While an Iranian official earlier confirmed that Tehran had accepted a ceasefire, the country's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said there would be no cessation of hostilities unless Israel stopped its attacks. But that did not stop Trump and his loyalists from touting what they see as a landmark achievement of a foreign policy approach they call "peace through strength." Trump had endorsed Israel's assessment that Iran was getting close to developing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has long denied. US intelligence agencies said earlier this year they assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and a source with access to US intelligence reports told Reuters last week that that view hadn't changed. Iran's calibrated response Trump's announcement came just hours after Iran launched missiles against a US air base in Qatar, causing no casualties, in retaliation for the US dropping 30,000-pound (about 13,607kg) bunker-buster bombs on Iranian underground nuclear facilities over the weekend. [[nid:719411]] Trump administration officials deemed Iran's response on Monday to have been calibrated to avoid further escalation with the US, according to sources familiar with the matter. Trump called for talks with Israel and Iran, and a senior White House official said Israel agreed to a ceasefire so long as Iran did not launch fresh attacks. Iran signalled that no further strikes would take place, the official said on condition of anonymity. 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"Now that Trump declared 'world peace,' it will be hard for Netanyahu to publicly contradict him," said Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East expert at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington. Trump's big gamble For his part, Trump's unprecedented decision to bomb Iran's nuclear sites marked a step that he had long pledged to avoid - to intervene militarily in a major foreign war. In the biggest and potentially riskiest foreign policy move of his presidency, Trump was betting not only that he could take out Iran's key nuclear site at Fordow but also draw only measured retaliation against the US There have been fears that Tehran could respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil artery, attacking multiple US military bases in the Middle East and activating proxies against US and Israeli interests worldwide. If Trump is able to defuse the Israel-Iran conflict, he may be able to calm the storm of criticism from congressional Democrats and appease the anti-interventionist wing of his Republican MAGA base over bombings that ran counter to his own campaign pledges. It would also allow him to re-focus on policy priorities such as deporting undocumented migrants and waging a tariff war against trading partners. But Trump and his aides won't be able to ignore Iran and the lingering questions it poses. "Can the ceasefire hold?" asked Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations. "Yes, the Iranians need it and the Israelis have largely now acted against the (Israeli Defence Force's) target list." But obstacles remain. "Iran is greatly weakened but what is the future of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes? What happens to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium? There will be a need for negotiations — and these won't be easy to resolve," Ross said. [[nid:719431]]
Straits Times
39 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Over 200 foreigners rescued from scam centres still stranded along Thai-Myanmar border
The Karen National Army claims to have repatriated more than 8,000 foreign nationals after rescuing them from scam centres in recent months. PHOTO: REUTERS Over 200 foreigners rescued from scam centres still stranded along Thai-Myanmar border YANGON - More than 200 foreign nationals rescued from scam centres in eastern Myanmar remain stranded along the war-torn country's border with Thailand, according to a local rebel group overseeing their repatriation. For years criminal networks have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to scam compounds across South-east Asia, including many along the Thai-Myanmar border, where victims are forced to work in illegal online schemes, according to the United Nations. Karen National Army, a rebel group that claims to have repatriated more than 8,000 foreign nationals after rescuing them from scam centres in Myanmar's Myawaddy area in recent months, said it was currently housing 216 people, including citizens of Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia. "We are giving food and medical supplies to these people," KNA spokesperson Naing Maung Zaw told Reuters on June 24. "Some are even pregnant, and we are providing health care for them." Since February, Thailand has halted electricity, internet, and fuel supplies to five Myanmar border areas, including Myawaddy, in a bid to disrupt the scam centres, which have become an escalating regional security concern. Two residents of Myawaddy, which lies across from the Thai town of Mae Sot, said that there hasn't been any electricity supplied from Thailand for months. Power supplied by the Myanmar government has not been stable, leaving much of the settlement - and the scam centres surrounding it - reliant on generators, they said. Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on June 23 that her administration was planning to curtail electricity supplies to illegal operations in Cambodia, following a sharp decline in relations between the neighbours. "After we cut electricity and water to Myanmar, the number of complaints dropped significantly," Ms Paetongtarn told reporters. "We've since learned that the criminal activity has moved from Myanmar to Cambodia." The Cambodian government denies the allegations. International pressure to shut down the scam centres intensified following the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was kidnapped after arriving in Thailand in January. He was later rescued by Thai police, who located him across the border in Myanmar. Criminal networks, mainly emanating from China, are known to run several of these scam centres, including those in the Myawaddy region, according to the United States Institute of Peace. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
