New York, Jun 24: Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire after the US pounded Tehran’s nuclear facilities, US President Donald Trump announced.

He said Monday evening on Truth Social, “It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE”.

The ceasefire will start in six hours – around midnight Washington time and 9:30 am in India -- “when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions”, he said.

In a dramatic end to the missile war between Iran and Israel into which the US was drawn in with both missiles and B2 stealth bombers, Trump, who had showered invectives on Tehran for years, wrote, “I want to thank Iran”.

“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR’”, he wrote.

The announcement followed a symbolic show of Iran, which shot missiles at a US base in Qatar after having given the US notice of the strike, according to Trump.

He said 13 of the 14 missiles that Iran fired were shot down, and there were no casualties.

“They’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system’, and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE”, he said.

Trump, who had threatened dire consequences if Iran retaliated after the US attacks on its three nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, and Firdo, was mollified by the symbolic retaliation.

“I was ‘set free’ because it was headed in a non-threatening direction”, he said.

Trump’s posts were sparse in details and said nothing about how, where or by whom the truce was reached.

Iran, exhausted by the 12 days of missile war with Israel and the final punch from the US, finally appears ready for a truce.

In the 46 years since the Shah of Iran was overthrown, "Death to America" has been a common refrain in Tehran, holding a grudge against Washington for its role in deposing the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh through a coup that ultimately gave absolute powers to Reza Pahlavi, the Shah.

A 2015 international agreement to rein in Iran's nuclear programme was shredded by Trump, who attempted to make a new deal in his second term.

The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to meet on Tuesday on that agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which was signed by the five permanent members of the Council and Germany and the European Union.

It is to be seen if the peace will hold as Israel disrupted the negotiations between Iran and the US by starting to bomb Iran two days before a scheduled meeting between representatives of Tehran and Washington.

That in turn led to the US joining in after about ten days of sitting on the fence.

How the ceasefire will work is complicated as set out in Trump’s Truth Social post.

He indicated that first Iran is to hold a ceasefire, which Israel will respect, and that will be followed by an Israeli ceasefire for another 12 hours, at which point it will become permanent.

After the two ceasefires, “upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World”, Trump said.

Trump’s gamble in joining on Israel’s side while isolated from the other traditional US allies would pay off if the truce holds.

After the US attacks on the three nuclear centres, which Trump said had obliterated Tehran’s nuclear potential, Iran appeared to have little to gain by continuing the defiance of the US as well as most nations that have opposed the Shia nation getting a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which had allied with Russia, supplying it with drones for the Ukraine war, did not get any backing from Moscow – or Beijing – when the US bombs rained on it.

(IANS)

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