DUBAI/JERUSALEM, June 8 (Reuters) – Iran and Israel said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump that they immediately “stop ‘shooting'”, though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The wave of attacks over the past 24 hours marked the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire, threatening to wreck Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than three-month war.
Oil prices – which had risen by as much as 5% after the flurry of attacks – later pared gains when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months. A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran. Israel struck Iranian targets after Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday. Tehran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut. Israel hit a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa. Iran’s military headquarters said it had “delivered a painful response” against Israel for its attacks on Lebanon, including Sunday’s strikes on the outskirts of Beirut. “Accordingly, the operations of the armed forces are hereby declared halted; however, it is emphasized that if the aggressions and acts of mischief continue — including in southern Lebanon — much more severe and crushing actions than before will follow.”
The exchange has complicated Trump’s push to end the war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, and underscores how easily the conflict could widen into a broader regional confrontation. A ceasefire announced on April 8 had paused all-out warfare but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was exchanging messages with Washington in an atmosphere of “extreme suspicion”. Israel’s actions in Lebanon, whether carried out with U.S. knowledge and consent or not, were aimed at sabotaging diplomacy, he added. In Tehran, Iranian media reported explosions on Monday, with air defences shooting down a drone over the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis pledged in a statement to stop Israel’s maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and said they had also fired missiles at Israel. The Israeli military official said Iran had fired “close to 30 ballistic missiles” at Israel since Sunday evening, and the Houthis a further two missiles. Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex that were used to produce and export raw materials for Iran’s missile programme. A provincial official told Iranian media parts of the plant were damaged. Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump has said any peace deal must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its sway over the strait.
NN: Forget Iran’s rockets, forget their drones… even forget their Nukes. The weapon of mass destruction the world is giving them is control of the straights. The world needs to send armies, invade the coast line of Iran and defend the straights. And all of this would be over. Until such time the world has a energy crises.