LIVE FIRE CEASEFIRE: Iran attempted to use its leverage with President Donald Trump — who is anxious to seal a nuclear deal with Tehran — to protect its proxy forces in Lebanon from Israeli retaliation, after Iran struck Israel with a wave of missile attacks over the weekend.Trump told Axios he would call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urge him not to retaliate to give diplomacy more time. During the call, Trump asked Netanyahu to hold his fire because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” Axios reported, citing a U.S. official.It didn’t work. Israel hit targets in central Iran, including a major petrochemical facility, prompting Iran to fire more missiles at Israel this morning.
The tit-for-tat cycle of attack and counterattack threatens the fragile ceasefire that has been in effect since April, and further complicates Trump’s efforts to reach an interim agreement with Iran that would open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping and set the framework for resumption of nuclear negotiations.
Trump told The Financial Times that Iran’s attacks on Israel would not slow down the peace process. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he told the FT. “We’ll see how it ends up,” Trump said. “It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”
