A top Iranian official on Monday called on the U.S. president to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.
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.
“If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote in a post on social media platform X.
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.”
Israel launched its air war on Friday with a surprise attack that decimated the top echelon of Iran’s military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. Israel now says it has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate its campaign in the coming days.
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.
