After Iran launched missile strikes against Israel on the 7th over the Lebanon situation, U.S. President Trump urged Iran to stop there, return to the negotiating table, and said he would immediately call Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to persuade Israel not to retaliate.
Trump told the media: “My advice to Iran is: you’ve already fired the missiles, that’s enough. Come back to the negotiating table and strike a deal.”
Trump said that the U.S. and Iran were “very close” to reaching an agreement before Iran launched the missiles at Israel that day, and he originally expected the deal could be signed around the 8th to 10th. He also said that Israel’s airstrike on southern Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, earlier that day was not coordinated with the U.S. in advance and expressed his displeasure at this. The latest developments “definitely don’t help the negotiations.”
Trump said: “Iran’s strike didn’t injure anyone. I hope Israel will not retaliate. If Netanyahu strikes back at Iran, then the situation will just continue like it has for the past 47 years or even the past 3,000 years.”
In response to Israel’s earlier airstrike on southern Beirut, on the night of the 7th local time, Iran launched strikes on Israel. This is the first direct attack by Iran on Israel since a roughly two-month US-Iran ceasefire. The Israeli military claimed to have “intercepted all incoming missiles.”
Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on the 8th that multiple explosions were heard early in the morning in the Iranian capital Tehran.