US President Donald Trump said he is in the “final throes” of reaching a Middle East peace deal.
“We’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal,” he tells reporters on his return from an NBA Finals game.
When asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he says it will take “two or three days.”
Iran and Israel announced on Monday a halt to their mutual attacks, the first clashes between them since the April ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the fire has been contained on that front,” hours after Tehran announced a “cessation of operations” against Israel after delivering a “painful response.”
The confrontation between Israel and Iran resumed for the first time since the ceasefire was declared on April 8, with explosions and sirens sounding again in several areas of both countries. The attacks resulted in injuries to 15 people in Iran, according to the head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services Organization.
The Israeli military said it intercepted an aerial attack launched from Yemen, with no casualties reported.
Iran insists that a ceasefire in Lebanon be part of any agreement it seeks with Washington, while Israel wants to separate the two issues.
Tehran justified its attack on Israel Sunday evening as a response to Israel’s bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of its ally Hezbollah.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, the central operations room of the Iranian armed forces, announced a “cessation of operations” against Israel after delivering a “painful response.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to continue the military campaign against Hezbollah on Monday, dismissing the Iranian warning and emphasizing that the army would strike Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to any attack on northern Israel.
In response, Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said, “We have disrupted the equation of a ceasefire on paper and its repeated violations in the field.”
In a sign that both sides expect the ceasefire to hold, the Israeli Education Ministry announced the reopening of schools on Tuesday, after they were closed on Monday across the country following the Iranian missile attacks.
The Iranian Civil Aviation Authority also announced the reopening of the country’s airspace, which had been partially closed after the missile attacks on Israel.
Later, Iranian news agencies reported that flights had resumed at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, and that planes carrying pilgrims from Saudi Arabia had landed. (AFP)
