Launches appear to mark the first such attack since April ceasefire; Tehran threatened Israel with ‘painful’ response after strikes on southern Beirut
Full report: Iran launches missiles at Israel
Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut earlier today despite its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon. The Lebanon health ministry says this attack killed two people and wounded 20 others.
The Israeli military later said it identified missiles launched from Iran toward the state of Israel in an apparent retaliation. It was the first such bombardment since a fragile ceasefire took effect in early April. The Israeli military warned of a second barrage of missiles fired from Iran soon after the first.
The Iranian missiles came shortly after Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei warned in a post on X that Tehran will give a “painful” response to Israel’s attack on Beirut’s Dahiyeh southern suburb, after the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a threat to US bases and assets in the region, claiming that the latest military action turned them into “legitimate targets.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Israeli military must stop its attacks on Lebanon and warned that if Israel escalates its offensives in Lebanon or responds to Iran’s actions, it will face “more crushing and regretful blows.”
Donald Trump told Fox News when asked about the incoming Iranian missiles that “It’s certainly not going to help negotiations.” He added: “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.” When asked about Israel striking Beirut earlier today, Trump replied: “I’m not happy about it.”
Donald Trump believes he has convinced Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran after its missile attacks against Israel, according to a senior US official.
The Associated Press quotes the official as confirming Trump had called Netanyahu and urged him not to immediately retaliate over Iran’s launches against Israel, which have shattered the fragile ceasefire in place since April.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump “got Bibi to hold off for the time being”, referring to Netanyahu’s nickname.
The official would not offer any other details of the call and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office, the report said.
Iran’s ballistic missile attack came soon after Israeli strikes on southern Beirut targeting infrastructure of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah.
Iran warned that strikes on the Lebanese capital would renew full-scale war across the Middle East, even as Pakistan and other mediators try to restart talks between Tehran and Washington.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has targeted the headquarters of “terrorist groups” in Iraqi Kurdistan, state media is reporting.
The Iranian government accuses the armed Kurdish parties – which have camps in neighbouring Iraq’s Kurdistan region – of serving western or Israeli interests and designates them as terrorist organisations.
Since the start of the Middle East war, and despite the ceasefire announced in April, Iran has repeatedly struck these groups, although their posts and camps have largely been evacuated, says Agence France-Presse.
Iran’s official Irna news agency posted on Telegram on Monday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “targeted the headquarters of terrorist groups in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq”.
Donald Trump has told Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran’s missile attack and to allow more time for diplomacy, Axios is reporting.
The news site quotes a senior US official as saying the US president told the Israeli prime minister on a call to hold off on because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal”.
Netanyahu pushed back but ultimately “pseudo agreed” to stand down, according to the unnamed official.
Sunday’s call was calmer than last week’s heated exchange and Trump did not raise his voice at Netanyahu, Axios quotes the official as saying, adding:
We think the president bought a little bit of time. He is pretty adamant that we are close to a deal with Iran. I don’t think anything is imminent in terms of an Israeli strike.”
The US embassy in Jerusalem will be shut on Monday because of “the current security situation in Israel”.
The embassy said in a security alert posted on X that its branch office in Tel Aviv would also be closed and directed all American government employees and their families to “shelter in place” until further notice.
Oil prices have climbed more than 3% amid the escalation in the Middle East war.
In early trading on Monday after the weekend, the price of Brent crude – the international benchmark – rose 3.29% to $96.15 a barrel.
Its US equivalent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was up 3.25% to $93.48 a barrel.
Iran fired missiles at Israel in apparent retaliation after Israel hit Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day, with the Iranian barrage the first since the fragile truce took effect in early April.
Donald Trump has said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have no choice but to accept whatever deal the US negotiates with Iran because “I call the shots”, according to a report.
“He won’t have any choice,” the Financial Times quoted Trump as saying. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
The US president was speaking shortly after Iran launched missiles at Israel in the most serious escalation of the war since the April ceasefire.
Trump has reportedly said he will tell Netanhayu not to strike back against Iran so as not to jeopardise a possible peace deal with Tehran.
Trump told the Financial Times that Iran’s strikes had not changed his desire to conclude the US-Iran negotiations.
“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he was quoted as saying.
We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”
He did not, however, sound upbeat about the prospects of an imminent deal, saying in the interview: “I think the deal is going on. We’ll see what happens.”
Asked what would happen if any such deal failed “on its merits”, Trump told the FT he would consider a commando raid on Iran:
It means [one of] two things. Number one, it would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily. Or it would just mean that we would keep the blockade on Iran because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.”
Tehran’s international airport has suspended all incoming flights after Iran’s missile strikes on Israel, according to local media.
“The civil aviation authority announced the suspension of all flights bound for the airport until further notice,” said the Iranian news agency Mehr said, cited by AFP.
It is the latest closure for Khomeini international airport, which is one of two serving the Iranian capital and re-opened only in April after being shut for weeks over the Middle East war.
The Israeli government’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said it is closing all crossings into Gaza after the missile attack by Iran.
“Following the missile attacks launched by Iran against the State of Israel, a number of necessary security measures have been implemented, including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice,” a statement posted on social media said.
Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi discussed the latest events in the region on Sunday night with his counterparts in Britain, France, and Turkey, as well as with Qatar’s leader and Pakistani mediators.
The separate conversations focused on Iran’s response to Israel’s “repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon”, his ministry said in a brief statement to AFP.
The telephone calls, reported by the IRNA news agency citing the Iranian foreign ministry, came as Iran launched salvoes of missiles at Israel after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Araghchi spoke to Qatar’s prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the French, British and Turkish foreign ministers, and members of the Pakistani team attempting to mediate an agreement between Tehran and Washington to end the Middle East war.
Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut earlier today despite its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon. The Lebanon health ministry says this attack killed two people and wounded 20 others.
The Israeli military later said it identified missiles launched from Iran toward the state of Israel in an apparent retaliation. It was the first such bombardment since a fragile ceasefire took effect in early April. The Israeli military warned of a second barrage of missiles fired from Iran soon after the first.
The Iranian missiles came shortly after Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei warned in a post on X that Tehran will give a “painful” response to Israel’s attack on Beirut’s Dahiyeh southern suburb, after the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a threat to US bases and assets in the region, claiming that the latest military action turned them into “legitimate targets.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Israeli military must stop its attacks on Lebanon and warned that if Israel escalates its offensives in Lebanon or responds to Iran’s actions, it will face “more crushing and regretful blows.”
Donald Trump told Fox News when asked about the incoming Iranian missiles that “It’s certainly not going to help negotiations.” He added: “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.” When asked about Israel striking Beirut earlier today, Trump replied: “I’m not happy about it.”
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