Tehran, Iran. Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump, though Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The exchange marked the most direct confrontation between the two countries since April and threatened Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than three-month-old war.
Market reaction
Oil prices rose as much as 5% after the attacks, then fell 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.
Military actions
A source briefed on the matter said Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran.
Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling them retaliation for attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel then struck Iranian air defense systems and a petrochemical plant that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it responded with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
No deaths were reported by authorities on either side.
Diplomatic efforts
The latest exchanges complicated Trump’s push to end a war that the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28. A ceasefire announced on April 8 paused all-out warfare, but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.
Trump said Israel and Iran both wanted an immediate ceasefire.
“Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” he wrote on social media.