Israel and Iran agree ceasefire after attack on US air base
The news came after Iran attacked American forces at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base on Monday evening. No casualties were reported, and the US was made aware of the attack in advance.
Just hours later, US president Donald Trump announced a ceasefire agreement had been reached on his social media platform Truth Social – although it took some time for both Iran and Israel to confirm.
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At around 11pm UK time, Trump posted: "CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!"
Around an hour later, a senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that it had agreed to the ceasefire, which was proposed by the US and mediated by Qatar.
Shortly before 6am UK-time, Iranian state television said the ceasefire had officially begun – but there was no word from Israel on whether it accepted the deal until just over an hour later.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that it has agreed to the proposal, adding that Israel would respond "forcefully" to any violations from Iran.
The statement added that Israel had agreed to the deal after "achieving the objectives" of its attacks, claiming that the "immediate existential threat" of Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles had been removed.
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The UK Government has welcomed the news. Speaking on the Tuesday morning media round, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told BBC Breakfast that it was "good news, if the ceasefire holds".
He said: 'I welcome the Israeli statement. It's obviously a fragile situation in the Middle East.
'A number of people have been killed overnight in missile strikes, but I think the whole world will hope that the ceasefire will hold and that Iran will come forward with a credible plan that shows that it will not pursue the development of a nuclear weapon.'
At the time of writing, there has been no official statement from either Foreign Secretary David Lammy or Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is heading to the Netherlands on Tuesday for a two-day Nato summit.
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