President Trump asks Israel and Iran to pause attacks while negotiations continue
President Donald Trump has called on Israel and Iran to halt their attacks as negotiations to end the deal continue amid tensions and fears of further escalation.
DUBAI/JERUSALEM – Two American pilots whose helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz are “fine,” President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, June 9, after The New York Times reported that the crew of an Apache gunship that crashed near the Iranian-controlled waterway had been rescued.
It was not immediately clear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian artillery fire, suffered a mechanical failure or encountered some other problem, the report said. The White House, U.S. State Department and U.S. Central Command did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Asked if he knew what caused the helicopter to crash, Trump said he would release a report later Tuesday.
“The pilot is fine,” President Trump said in a speech on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport before returning to Washington, D.C. “No one was injured.”
The incident came a day after Iran and Israel announced they had halted attacks on each other following President Trump’s appeal, but Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The resumption of a delicate ceasefire comes as Washington tries to reach a deal with Iran to end a war that has lasted more than three months.
Trump also told reporters he could have an “idea” on the Iran deal within days, but did not elaborate. The Republican president, suffering record low approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections, has frequently hinted at an imminent deal with the Iranian government, but no deal has yet been reached.
This weekend saw the most direct clashes between Iran and Israel since the ceasefire in April. The Iranian government fired a missile into Israeli territory late Sunday in retaliation for an attack on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia outside Beirut.
Israel then attacked Iranian air defense systems and a petrochemical plant it said was used to make ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it retaliated with an attack targeting a similar Israeli factory in the city of Haifa.
No deaths were reported by authorities on either side.
President Trump tells Prime Minister Netanyahu to be careful
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday, June 8, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
In an interview with Axios, President Trump said he warned Netanyahu that if the Israeli leader went to war with Iran again, he might end up fighting alone. “I said, ‘Bibi, you better watch out or you’re going to be on your own soon,'” Trump said.
Israeli military officials said Israel was prepared to continue operations “for as long as necessary,” but Iranian officials struck a similarly defiant tone. The semi-official Tasnim news agency cited military sources as saying Iran was preparing for a prolonged conflict and could resume attacks on US interests in the region.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said the Iranian government was exchanging messages with the US government in an atmosphere of “extreme suspicion”.
Tehran has long said a peace deal with the United States depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border. Israel insists the conflict should be treated separately from the ceasefire between the United States and Iran and has never stopped its military operations in Lebanon, which have killed thousands of people. Hezbollah also continues its attacks.
The Iranian government continues to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war transported one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. The US government has imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports.
President Trump said a peace deal must prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran’s demands include lifting international sanctions, releasing billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognizing control of the strait.
(Reporting by Reuters bureau; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
