Trump Demands Israel and Iran Immediately Stop 'Shooting' as Hostilities Escalate

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - US president issues back-to-back Truth Social posts urging a halt to hostilities and confirming final peace negotiations are underway, while warning the Hormuz blockade stays in place until a deal is sealed

"Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, in a message addressed under his full name, President Donald J. Trump.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday with two urgent public messages directed at Israel and Iran, demanding an immediate halt to hostilities, confirming that final peace negotiations are ongoing, and warning that the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will remain fully in force until a permanent deal is reached.

In his first post on Monday, June 8, 2026, Trump issued a blunt one-line demand: "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting.'" The message, signed under his full name, President Donald J. Trump, came as Iranian ballistic missiles struck Tel Aviv and surrounding areas and Israeli jets pounded military targets across western and central Iran in the most serious exchange of direct fire since the April ceasefire collapsed Sunday night.

His second post went further, revealing that both sides are actively seeking a ceasefire and that final peace negotiations are in progress. "Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate ceasefire," Trump wrote. "Final negotiations on 'Peace' are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way." He added that the US blockade will remain in place and in full force until a final deal is reached, closing with a note of measured optimism: "Things should move quickly."

A Blockade That Stays Until the End

Trump's insistence that the Strait of Hormuz blockade will remain fully operational until a final agreement is signed represents a significant hardening of Washington's negotiating position. The blockade, imposed by President Trump following Iran's near-total disruption of tanker traffic through the waterway, has devastated Iranian oil revenues and contributed directly to the economic crisis now gripping Iraq and other regional states dependent on Gulf energy exports.

The explicit linkage between a final peace deal and the lifting of the blockade signals that Washington intends to use the strait as its primary instrument of economic leverage throughout the remainder of the negotiations, regardless of any interim ceasefire arrangements.

The Context Behind the Posts

The back-to-back Truth Social posts came hours after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday, with several striking Tel Aviv and other areas of the country. The IRGC cited Israel and the United States' failure to honor the ceasefire and the continuation of Israeli strikes on Lebanon's Dahiyeh district as the justification for the attack. The Israeli Air Force responded with strikes on multiple military targets in western and central Iran, including a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, with Israeli media reporting the campaign is expected to continue for several days.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the Iranian strikes are "certainly not going to help negotiations," and had privately urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran.

Iran's Warning Stands

The optimism in Trump's second post contrasts sharply with the tone coming from Tehran. Ibrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, told Kurdistan 24 exclusively on Monday that Iran's era of restraint is over and that both the US and Israel should expect "worse and more painful days ahead." Rezaei said Iran has learned through 40 days of war how to defeat both Israel and the United States.

Iran has also formally conditioned any peace agreement with Washington on the achievement of a stable ceasefire in Lebanon, the same front whose collapse on Sunday triggered the current round of strikes. Until that condition is met, every flare-up along the Israel-Lebanon border carries the potential to unravel whatever diplomatic progress Washington believes it has made.

Trump's posts, blunt and public in the manner that has defined his diplomatic communications since returning to the White House, suggest that the US president believes a deal remains within reach. Whether the parties on the ground share that assessment is a different question entirely.