Israel ignores Trump’s pleas and launched fresh military strikes on Iran just moments after a stern warning from the U.S. President ‘not to retaliate’ against Tehran.
The Israeli Defense Forces launched strikes on military sites in western and central Iran as state-run news reported explosions heard across the country.
‘The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago,’ the IDF said in a statement.
Iran retaliated this morning with waves of attacks, and explosions could be heard in central Israel as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept incoming Iranian fire.
The strikes came after after a series of missile attacks between Iran and Israel.
Trump had called Benjamin Netanyahu and warned that he ‘calls all the shots.’
‘I am going to call Bibi [Netanyahu] right now and tell him not to retaliate,’ Trump was quoted as saying by Axios journalist Barak Ravid in a phone interview.
‘If Bibi strikes them back, it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or the last 3,000 years,’ he added.
Trump ordered both sides to stop the battle after Israel’s strikes this weekend on Beirut and Iran’s strikes on Northern Israel Sunday.
‘Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,’ Trump said.
Trump was insistent on forging a peace deal with Iran.
Oil prices rose more than three percent on Monday when markets reopened after the weekend, after Israel launched fresh strikes on Iran.
In early trading, the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 3.29 percent to $96.15 a barrel.
Its US equivalent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), rose 3.25 percent to $93.48 a barrel.
