- Urges Israel to withdraw planes as bombing sorties are ‘major violation’
United States (US) President Donald Trump says Israel has to “calm down” after expressing anger that both Israel and Iran have violated a ceasefire he tried to broker.
Reuters reports that as he departed the White House for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Trump said that; “I gotta get Israel to calm down now”.
Reacting furiously after an Israel-Iran ceasefire he had brokered and taken credit for was violated within a few hours, Trump ordered Israel to turn its warplanes around midair and abort their planned bombing sorties, which he warned would be a “major violation”.
Israel claimed Iran had been the first to break the truce, saying it had shot down two ballistic missiles heading for northern Israel at about 10.30am, about two and a half hours after the ceasefire was announced.
But waking in Washington to the news that his truce had been broken so soon, Trump reserved his greatest rancour for Israel, for the scale of its planned retaliation, but also for the amount of bombs Israeli planes had dropped between agreeing the ceasefire on Monday night and it coming into force at 5am GMT on Tuesday.
An angry Trump said; “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen,” he said, in the strongest-worded public rebuke of Israel of any US President in history.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” Trump said.
On his own private online platform, Truth Social, he issued a blunt instruction, writing: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”
Leaders of NATO, which includes several European countries, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada, are gathering for the high-stakes summit that will cover topics such as a proposed five (5) percent GDP target and questions about Kyiv’s role on the table.
We’re Ready If Israel Obeys – Iranian President
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that his country will respect a ceasefire announced by Donald Trump, provided that Israel also upholds its terms.
“If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either,” Pezeshkian said during a phone conversation with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to the presidency’s website.
This is as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) said they have arrested a European citizen who entered Iran as a tourist and went to southern Hormozgan Province to gather intelligence at sensitive and military sites.
According to Reuters, the semi-official news agency, Tasnim, which published the report on Tuesday, did not give further details on the person’s nationality.
Statement By Israel
Meanwhile, the following statement from the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister was released today (Tuesday, 24 June 2025) [translated from Hebrew]:
“The ceasefire was set for 07.00 this morning. At 03.00, Israel forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran, struck regime targets and eliminated hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces personnel.
“Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Iran launched a barrage of missiles, one of which took the lives of four of our citizens in Be’er Sheva. The ceasefire took effect at 07.00.
“At 07.06, Iran launched one missile at Israeli territory, and two additional missiles at 10.25. These missiles were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and caused neither casualties nor damage.
“In response to Iran’s violations, the Air Force destroyed a radar installation near Tehran.
“Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.
“In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.” – With agencies’ reports
