Israel and Iran appeared to be honoring a ceasefire agreement unexpectedly announced by Donald Trump overnight, after the U.S. president reacted angrily to reports of early breaches of the deal by both sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to hold off on further strikes after a conversation with Trump on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office. Israel had destroyed a radar complex near Tehran after the truce came into effect as of 7 a.m. local time, in response to three missiles from Iran, the prime minister’s office said.

Reports of attacks by both sides in the early hours of the peace accord triggered a furious reaction from Trump, who had declared the war over late Monday after 12 days of fighting. “DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS,” read one post on his Truth Social platform, directed at Israel in particular. “IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION.”

Trump’s bid to end the 12-day conflict, which threatened to escalate into a wider regional war and upend energy markets, came just two days after he ordered U.S. forces to join the Israeli attack by bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

A limited Iranian retaliation, targeting an American base in Qatar, was telegraphed in advance to avoid casualties. The prospect of de-escalation has triggered a slump in oil prices — erasing almost all of the increase since the conflict broke out.

Still, the truce remains fragile as the focus shifts back to nuclear diplomacy with Iran. A stated aim of Israel’s campaign, and Trump’s decision to take part in it, was to destroy Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. The extent of the damage to the Islamic atomic capabilities remains unclear and the whereabouts of a stockpile of highly enriched uranium is unknown.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Tuesday welcomed the ceasefire and said it’s ready to resume work in Iran as soon as possible. That would involve inspectors “going back to the country’s nuclear sites and verifying the inventories of nuclear material – including more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60% — which they last verified a few days before the Israeli air strikes began,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Early Tuesday, Trump’s frustration with ceasefire breaches boiled over when he stopped to take questions from reporters before heading to a NATO summit in The Hague. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” he told them on the South Lawn of the White House, before marching toward the presidential helicopter.

The president’s tone later cooled. In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the summit, Trump reiterated what he’d maintained was the U.S. goal in nuclear talks with Iran. “They’re not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Israel’s attack on Iran came after five rounds of negotiations between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, which sought a diplomatic solution to concerns over Iran’s nuclear program — effectively a replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump abandoned during his first term. An agreement hadn’t been reached, though a sixth round was scheduled before the Israeli missiles rendered it obsolete.

Tehran has insisted on its rights under international law to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. In calls with regional counterparts reported by state media on Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appeared to reiterate that stance.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is solely pursuing its legitimate rights and has no ambitions beyond that,” he told UAE counterparts. “ Iran has never sought nuclear weapons and doesn’t seek them.”

Trump had said Iran was “weeks away” from having a nuclear bomb, though some experts and U.S. intelligence estimates said it could take months or years for the nation to develop a weapon.

Trump hinted at the kind of relief from his “maximum pressure” campaign Iran might expect if talks advance, saying on social media that China can continue buying Iranian oil in the light of the cease-fire. It wasn’t immediately clear how that pronouncement — which would essentially reverse years of sanctions — could be implemented by the U.S. Treasury and Congress.

Oil prices, which began to slide the previous day when it became clear that both the U.S. and Iran were seeking an off-ramp, extended declines on those comments. Brent crude fell below $67 a barrel as of 1 p.m. in New York — a drop of more than $10 from last Friday’s close.

A senior White House official said Trump brokered the ceasefire in a conversation with Netanyahu on Monday, while Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff held direct and indirect talks with the Iranians about the proposal.

Since the war started, 606 people have been killed in Iran, according to the government. In Israel, emergency services have said 28 people have been killed by Iranian missile strikes, including four on Tuesday morning just as the truce was due to take effect.

The IAEA on Tuesday updated its assessment of the damage done by the weekend U.S. strikes on Iran’s atomic facilities. It said that access roads close to the subterranean facility at Fordow were hit, while at Natanz impact holes above the underground halls used for enrichment and storage had been identified.

“Our assessment is that there has been some localized radioactive as well as chemical release inside the affected facilities that contained nuclear material – mainly uranium enriched to varying degrees – but there has been no report of increased off-site radiation levels,” the agency said.

Israeli authorities said Tuesday that wartime safety directives have been lifted, and military chief Eyal Zamir said Iran’s nuclear and missile projects had been set back by years — but added a cautionary note.

“We have concluded a significant phase, but the campaign against Iran is not over,” he said.

---------

—With assistance from Arsalan Shahla.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.