US President Donald Trump on Monday resolved the latest crisis between Israel and Iran with his announcement of a ceasefire between the two countries, only to then face the complexities of the relationship between the two long-standing and irreconcilable rivals head-on. Trump lashed out Tuesday in a series of posts on his social media platform, Truth, and later in front of reporters waiting for him on the White House lawn before boarding the Marine One helicopter at the start of his trip to The Hague, Netherlands, where he is scheduled to attend the NATO summit. In a blistering intervention, laced with profanity, the Republican accused both countries of breaking the promise they had made the day before to stop the crossfire. He said they “have no fucking idea what they’re doing” and took aim at Israel in particular, in a public display of anger toward a favored ally for which there is little precedent.
“I’m not happy with Israel,” Trump said. “I didn’t like a lot of things I saw yesterday. I didn’t like that Israel dropped bombs right after we made the deal. They didn’t have to do that; it was a very strong retaliation.” The US president also expressed his displeasure with Iran, but he excused them somewhat, saying that Tehran “only dropped one bomb, and it missed its target; I think they did it accidentally. They can’t control their own.”
Trump also said that during his trip he would"try to calm Israel and resolve the problem." Later, both the Washington-based political news site Axios and the Israeli press reported that the US president called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding that he stop the attacks. According to these reports, Netanyahu responded that such a thing was impossible and that it was only in his power to moderate the intensity of the bombings.
In Truth, Trump once again declared victory by claiming the problem was resolved and that"all [Israeli] planes" would "turn around." Netanyahu's office then announced that "following the conversation" between the two leaders, Israel"will refrain from launching further attacks."
The “12-day war”
The fragile ceasefire was set to come into effect, as the US president himself announced in a surprising speech on the radio at midnight in Washington (6:00 a.m. in mainland Spain, 7:00 a.m. in Jerusalem and Tehran). Trump proudly stated that the truce would end what he called"the 12-day war," a label that is a nod to another historic conflict that defined the region (the Six-Day War in 1967) and that referred to the time that had passed since Netanyahu ordered an attack on Iran on June 13 under the pretext, yet to be proven, that the Islamic regime was close to obtaining the atomic bomb.
Trump's announcement was followed by several hours of confusion. First, the two countries refused to confirm the existence of a pact. Then, Iran denied it through its foreign minister, only to finally state on state television that it would comply. Israel finally agreed to comply, and soon afterward, claimed it had detected missiles"launched from Iran" and ordered its military to launch new "high-intensity" attacks against the Iranian capital. Tehran denied breaking the ceasefire.
Then Trump ignited. He showed his anger, especially at Israel, and first in Truth. He wrote, in all capital letters: “Israel. Don't drop those bombs. If you do, it is a serious violation [of the ceasefire agreement]. Bring your pilots home, now!” Ten minutes later, he stated in another message that Israel “will not attack Iran again” and that the “ceasefire is in effect.”
He dedicated a third post to Iran:"They will never rebuild their nuclear facilities." Trump was referring to the three uranium enrichment plants attacked by US aircraft last weekend, in a military operation that not only broke the US president's campaign promise not to involve Washington in new military adventures, but also put an end to four and a half decades of containment policies pursued by past administrations toward the ayatollahs' regime.
That attack was met on Monday with a timid retaliation: the launch of missiles from Iran against the US base at Al Udeid, Washington's largest in the Middle East. It is located just outside the Qatari capital, Doha. The attack caused no casualties, and 13 of the 14 projectiles were intercepted before impact, according to Trump in another Truth message. That didn't stop the Iranian regime's television host who reported on the ceasefire from selling the idea that it was the result of a show of force that made his two rivals bow down.
