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Israel and Iran agree on ceasefire to end 12-day war, Trump says
Neither Iran’s U.N. mission nor the Israeli embassy in Washington responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday a complete ceasefire between Israel and Iran, potentially ending the 12-day war that saw millions flee Tehran and prompted fears of further escalation in the war-torn region, Reuters reported.
But there was no confirmation from Israel and the Israeli military said two volleys of missiles were launched from Iran towards Israel in the early hours of Tuesday.
Witnesses later heard explosions near Tel Aviv and Beersheba in central Israel. Israel media said a building had been struck and three people were killed in the missile strike on Beersheba.
Israel, joined by the United States on the weekend, has carried out attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, after alleging Tehran was getting close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR’,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
While an Iranian official earlier confirmed that Tehran had agreed to a ceasefire, the country’s foreign minister said there would be no cessation of hostilities unless Israel stopped its attacks.
Abbas Araqchi said early on Tuesday that if Israel stopped its “illegal aggression” against the Iranian people no later than 4 a.m. Tehran time (0030 GMT) on Tuesday, Iran had no intention of continuing its response afterwards, read the report.
There have been no reported Israeli attacks on Iran since that time.
“The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later,” Araqchi added in a post on X.
A senior White House official said Trump had brokered the deal in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel had agreed so long as Iran did not launch further attacks.
Trump appeared to suggest that Israel and Iran would have some time to complete any missions that are underway, at which point the ceasefire would begin in a staged process.
Iran denies ever having a nuclear weapons program but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that if it wanted to, world leaders “wouldn’t be able to stop us”.
Israel, which is not a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran’s agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Tuesday.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff were in direct and indirect contact with the Iranians, a White House official said.
Neither Iran’s U.N. mission nor the Israeli embassy in Washington responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters.
Hours earlier, three Israeli officials had signaled Israel was looking to wrap up its campaign in Iran soon and had passed the message on to the United States.
Netanyahu had told government ministers whose discussions ended early on Tuesday not to speak publicly, Israel’s Channel 12 television reported.
Markets reacted favorably to the news.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% late on Monday, suggesting traders expect the U.S. stock market to open with gains on Tuesday.
U.S. crude futures fell in early Asian trading hours on Tuesday to their lowest level in more than a week after Trump said a ceasefire had been agreed, relieving worries of supply disruption in the region.
There did not appear to be calm yet in the region.
The Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings in less than two hours to residents of areas in the Iranian capital Tehran, one late on Monday and one early on Tuesday.
Israeli Army radio reported early on Tuesday that alarms were activated in the southern Golan Heights area due to fears of hostile aircraft intrusion.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said he would encourage Israel to proceed towards peace after dismissing Iran’s attack on an American air base that caused no injuries and thanking Tehran for the early notice of the strikes.
He said Iran fired 14 missiles at the U.S. air base, calling it “a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered.”
Iran’s handling of the attack recalled earlier clashes with the United States and Israel, with Tehran seeking a balance between saving face with a military response but without provoking a cycle of escalation it can’t afford.
Tehran appears to have achieved that goal.
Iran’s attack came after U.S. bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iranian underground nuclear facilities at the weekend, joining Israel’s air war.
Much of Tehran’s population of 10 million has fled after days of bombing, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration maintains that its aim was solely to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, not to open a wider war.
“Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
“Now Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon with the equipment they have because we destroyed it,” Vance said.
Trump has cited intelligence reports that Iran was close to building a nuclear weaopon, without elaborating. However, U.S. intelligence agencies said earlier this year they assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and a source with access to U.S. intelligence reports told Reuters last week that that assessment hadn’t changed.
But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington’s principal foes in the Middle East since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel, however, had made clear that its strikes on Evin prison – a notorious jail for housing political prisoners – and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, and its ability to sustain power.
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Blast in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan kills 11, injures 30
Eleven people were killed and 30 injured in a blast in Dera Ismail Khan in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, emergency service Rescue 1122 said.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.
The blast occurred near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of the district, Rescue 1122 said in a statement.
Rescue teams from the Darazinda station reached the scene and began relief operations, providing medical assistance to the wounded and taking them to hospital, the service said.
Security incidents have continued in the district this month, including attacks involving the Pakistani Taliban.
Regional
Imran Khan’s party postpones planned Islamabad march to October 4
Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has postponed a planned long march from Peshawar to Islamabad until October 4, the chief minister of the PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sohail Afridi, told reporters on Friday.
PTI had planned to begin the march on September 27 to press for the release of Khan, who has been in jail since 2023. The PTI’s last large-scale protest two years ago ended in deadly clashes with security forces, Reuters reported.
Earlier this week, Pakistan curbed access to its capital, Islamabad, by blocking major highways with shipping containers and deploying tens of thousands of security forces, ahead of the march planned by Khan’s supporters.
Party spokesperson Zulfi Bukhari, however, told Reuters that although they had moved the planned date to October 4, they could launch the march earlier.
“We can now do it whenever we deem fit. The question is to the government, as to how long they’re willing to keep the country closed off?”, Bukhari said.
Authorities have detained three of Khan’s sisters and hundreds of party activists in recent days, citing a need to maintain public order.
Khan, 73, a former cricket star ousted by parliament in a 2022 no-confidence vote, has claimed to be a political prisoner.
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Saudi Grand Mufti tells troops to be ready to sacrifice their lives fighting Houthis
State TV has in recent weeks aired footage of an alleged Houthi strike on a mosque in the kingdom’s south, and authorities have also accused the Houthis of launching an attack on Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority called on soldiers in the kingdom to be ready to lay down their lives to fight the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power, a statement posted on the Saudi state news agency said.
The rare and strongly worded message by Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan was addressed to soldiers stationed at the country’s borders and drew heavily on Quranic verses and recorded sayings of the Prophet Mohammad related to sacrifice and struggle in defence of God, Reuters reported.
It comes after weeks of escalating violence between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis which has seen the Iran-backed group attack the kingdom with salvos of missiles and drones and Saudi Arabia respond with airstrikes.
Observers have been questioning whether Saudi Arabia will launch a broader military operation along with Yemeni government forces it backs.
“Protecting this great nation… and punishing anyone who seeks to lay a hand on even an inch of its territory are among the greatest duties and most virtuous acts of devotion, for which lives and souls may be sacrificed in seeking God’s pleasure,” said the statement, issued late Thursday.
Asserting the authority of the Saudi-backed internationally recognized Yemeni government over the entire country was “among the most pressing obligations,” it added.
Those government forces lost control of the vital Bab el-Mandeb waterway to the Houthis two weeks back, a blow to the kingdom, which has been mired in the conflict since 2015 after it launched an unsuccessful operation to oust the Houthis from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
The recent fighting is the latest episode in 12 years of civil war in Yemen which had largely been frozen since a 2022 but has escalated again and has become linked to the wider Iran war.
“We ask God Almighty to grant you all his support, and to protect our countries and beloved Yemen from all harm. We also ask him to bring about the complete defeat of the Houthi group and those who assist and support them,” the statement said.
The Mufti’s letter adds to a growing religiously centered narrative by authorities in the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom aimed at discrediting the Houthis, who follow a different sect of Islam.
State TV has in recent weeks aired footage of an alleged Houthi strike on a mosque in the kingdom’s south, and authorities have also accused the Houthis of launching an attack on Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.
“It is incumbent upon you, brothers serving on the front lines, to remain constantly prepared to perform your duty, to obey the rulers and your field commanders, and to carry out orders with the utmost precision, as God Almighty commanded the companions of his Prophet to do,” the statement said.
“You are following in the footsteps of the Prophet’s companions, defending the sacred sites of Muslims.”
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