US President Donald Trump’s early morning announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran on June 24 was greeted by waves of Iranian missiles and wails of sirens on the Israeli side, raising questions about the viability of the truce.
Trump had to go on his Truth social media platform again, urging two sides, who had been pounding each other for 12 days, to honour the truce.
“The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it!,” he said, even as Israel ordered the closure of its air space as Iranian missiles continued to hit the country, killing at least four people.
As hours went by, Iran, which earlier said no truce had been agreed to, announced on state television that the ceasefire had begun.
Sometime later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had accepted the ceasefire and had achieved goals of Operation Rising Lion against Iran.
Israel had "eliminated an immediate and dual existential threat, both in the nuclear domain and in the realm of ballistic missiles", he said but warned, “Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire.”
Unanswered questions
As the ceasefire, to be implemented in three stages, kicks in, there are several questions that remain unanswered and will decide how the events progress over the coming days.
The first and most obvious is will the ceasefire hold between the two sides who have been bitter enemies for years.
Trump may have announced “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” but it remains unclear what are the terms the two sides agreed to.
Will the US and Iran revive failed nuclear talks?
Trump over the weekend ordered the bombing of Iran’s three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. Iran retaliated by launching a missile attack on an American air base in Qatar on June 23 but the response was seen as calibrated to avoid escalation, paving the way for the ceasefire.
The biggest question of all is perhaps the fate of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium that many experts believe may have survived the US and Israeli bombing campaigns.
Israel targeted Iran saying its enrichment programme posed an existential threat to the country.
Several reports said Iran in all likelihood removed enriched uranium from Fordow’s deep unground facility before the US rained “bunker busters” on the mountainous site.
Vice president JD Vance claimed Iran can’t build nuclear weapons after B-2 bombers struck over the weekend. But is that the case?
Several security experts have warned that equipment can be destroyed but not the knowledge. American critics of Trump said his decision to bomb Iranian sites would hasten Iran’s embrace of nuclear weapon programme for deterrence.
If Trump, who faced criticism from rivals and even supporters for going against his poll pledge of keeping the US out of foreign wars, manages to bring peace to the restive region, it would be a big win.
But for that to work, the US will have to find answers to the Iran question.
“Iran is greatly weakened but what is the future of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs? What happens to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium? There will be a need for negotiations — and these won’t be easy to resolve,” Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for America, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
(With agency inputs)
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