Iran and Israel said they had halted their attacks on each other on Tuesday, the 101st day of the war, after President Donald Trump publicly ordered both sides to "immediately stop 'shooting'" and declared that negotiations for a wider peace deal were in their "final throes." Iran's military command announced a halt in operations against Israel, and Israeli officials confirmed they had suspended strikes on Iran, pulling the region back from the worst flare-up since Trump announced a ceasefire in early April.
The de-escalation followed a weekend in which the two adversaries traded their heaviest strikes in months, reviving fears of a full-blown regional war. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Israel and Iran were "looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE" and that "final negotiations on 'Peace' are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way."
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said negotiators were "going back and forth and now they both agreed through me to stop," and predicted a deal could be concluded within "two or three days." He went further still, forecasting what he called "total victory" within two weeks and saying Iranian negotiators were "willing to give us everything."
Trump also delivered a pointed warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him in a phone call to pull back on strikes, according to officials briefed on the conversation. "You better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon," Trump told the Israeli leader, signaling growing impatience in Washington with the pace of Israeli operations.
The truce between Tehran and Tel Aviv remained fragile and conditional. Iran warned that it would resume its attacks if Israel continued striking inside Lebanon, where the Israeli military has pressed an offensive against Hezbollah. Israeli leaders, for their part, said they would not be deterred from operating against the group, leaving an opening for the broader confrontation to reignite.
Even as the Iran-Israel exchange paused, Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon pressed on. An Israeli strike near the Lebanese Red Cross center in the coastal city of Tyre killed five people and wounded eight, four of them paramedics, and Lebanese authorities said at least 14 people were killed across the south on Monday. The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for an area near Tyre, including part of its historic Christian Quarter.
International mediators expressed cautious optimism that a durable agreement was within reach. Pakistan's prime minister said a diplomatic solution was "just about to be achieved," while Iran's envoy to the United Nations said he hoped the conflict could be brought to a close "by end of June."
The war, which began in late February, has reshaped the Middle East and roiled global energy markets, with repeated scares over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Each round of escalation has revived a risk premium in oil prices, and traders watched Tuesday's tentative calm closely for signs that the threat to the world's most important oil chokepoint might finally ease.
For now, the guns had largely fallen silent between the two principal combatants, but the continued bombardment of Lebanon underscored how much could still go wrong. Whether Trump's predicted breakthrough materializes in the coming days, diplomats cautioned, may hinge on whether Israel halts its Lebanon campaign before Iran makes good on its threat to strike again.