Iran called on U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday to push Israel to engage in a cease-fire to end a four-day-long aerial war between the two nations.
He then said that “Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue,” and that it takes “one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”
Tehran’s retaliation is the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defenses and killed Israelis.
Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians. State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran.
The Islamic regime has fired multiple salvos of missiles and drones at Israel, hitting areas across the country. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in a statement on Monday morning that a U.S. State Department building in Tel Aviv was damaged in an Iranian strike.
Officials in Israel have said that at least 14 people have died due to the Iranian strikes, while the country’s main international airport in Tel Aviv remained closed for a third day.
Trump has said that the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to U.S. demands that it accept strict curbs on its nuclear program, something also sought by European countries. In posts on social media, Trump also stressed that his administration wasn’t involved in the Israeli strikes but warned Iran not to attack U.S. assets in the region.
“We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere,” Netanyahu added. “The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil.”
When pressed again about reports of a strike that could take out the ayatollah, Netanyahu said Israel is “doing what we need to do.”
“I’m not going to get into the details, but we’ve targeted their top nuclear scientists,” he added. “It’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team.”
Global oil prices shot up on Friday at the prospect of the conflict disrupting supplies from the Gulf. Prices eased somewhat on Monday, suggesting traders think exports could be spared, despite Israeli attacks hitting domestic Iranian oil and gas targets.
