President Donald Trump publicly pleaded with Israel and Iran to halt their fighting early Monday as the two countries traded their worst strikes since the April truce, threatening to collapse the peace deal Trump had declared was days away from completion.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:36 a.m. Eastern. “President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The all-caps signature did not appear to have the desired effect. By morning, Israel was defending fresh waves of Iranian missiles — with CNN’s Oren Liebermann reporting interceptions visible over Jerusalem — while Iran threatened to target all oil and gas facilities associated with the U.S. and Israel if attacks on its energy infrastructure continued.
The escalation unraveled a week of optimistic diplomacy. Trump had told the Financial Times just days earlier that negotiations were “very close” and predicted a deal would be announced this week. He had also told Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran, according to a U.S. official — an instruction Netanyahu appeared to ignore.
The sequence: Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the IDF, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching two more in the first such attacks since April. Israel responded with two waves of strikes on Iran, targeting aerial defense systems in the first wave and a petrochemical facility in the second. Iran then struck petrochemical infrastructure in Haifa, with footage showing missiles bearing the message in three languages: “You will regret this.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. “bears responsibility” for Israel’s actions as a party to the April ceasefire. Iran also called “absurd” any suggestion that frozen Iranian assets could be redirected to compensate U.S. allies for war damages.
The financial fallout was immediate. Brent crude surged nearly 5 percent to $97.52 a barrel. Asian stock markets tumbled, with South Korea’s KOSPI plunging more than 8 percent.
Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Spanish parliament in Madrid on a peace-focused visit, called war “a painful defeat of the capacity to negotiate” as the strikes unfolded. Israel’s military said it was preparing for at least several days of fighting and the possibility of a prolonged campaign.
Trump told Fox News the Iranian attack “certainly is not going to help negotiations” and called on Iran to “get back to the table and make a deal.” He had previously told the Financial Times that Israel “would have to accept any deal” the U.S. reaches with Iran, saying “I call all the shots.”
On Monday morning, that bold claim was being tested in real time.
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