US President Trump takes credit for the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon
US President Donald Trump urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, telling Israel to “calm down sometimes and use your mind” as the truce took effect on Friday after deadly strikes that killed 47 people in Lebanon.Trump told NBC News that he spoke with Israel and asked it to agree to a ceasefire, but he declined to specify whether he had spoken directly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“It’s a positive thing,” Trump said of the ceasefire. “It’s just a small icing on the cake,” he added, referring to the memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran aimed at ending the conflict in West Asia.“You just have to calm down sometimes and use your brain,” Trump said of his relationship with Netanyahu.
“You’ve always been good to Pepe.”Hours after the ceasefire took effect, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, began traveling to Switzerland to hold the first round of talks with Iran regarding a possible nuclear agreement, according to Axios.The development came one day after Vice President J.D. Vance canceled his plans to attend the talks, which were canceled amid renewed fighting in Lebanon. This escalation sparked a new state of uncertainty about the fate of the crucial negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed that the talks had been postponed and that Switzerland was still ready to facilitate them.A senior American official said that the ceasefire came into effect around 4 p.m. Lebanon time after an exchange of fire. Negotiators from the United States and Qatar reached the agreement with the help of Iran.“If Hezbollah does not attack us, this is not a time of war for us,” an Israeli official said, adding that Israel would keep its forces in southern Lebanon.The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that the Israeli strikes after midnight on Friday killed 47 people and injured 97. The Israeli army said that four soldiers were killed in an incident in Lebanon.Two Lebanese security sources said that Israel carried out 12 air strikes in the first hour of the ceasefire, but none of them were recorded after 5 p.m.Trump again defended the agreement after criticism in Washington, including from some Republican allies in Congress.“The war has weakened Iran!” he wrote on social media. “We did not come together out of despair, it was Iran that did this. They are finished! We will play for 60 days. They will not get the money, not a dime!”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that the United States would be responsible for any violation of its obligations under the agreement, including ending the fighting in Lebanon.The US State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and discussed holding the next round of Israeli-Lebanese negotiations in Washington from June 23 to 25.Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz rebounded after the signing of an agreement this week. The strait carried nearly a fifth of the world’s crude oil before Iran blocked it during the war.
