Trump Demands Israel and Iran Immediately Stop 'Shooting' as Hostilities Escalate
US president issues urgent call for a halt to hostilities on Truth Social as Iranian missiles strike Tel Aviv and Israeli jets pound targets across Iran
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - President Donald Trump issued an urgent public demand Monday for both Israel and Iran to immediately cease hostilities, posting a blunt one-line message on his Truth Social platform as the two countries exchanged their most serious round of direct strikes since the April ceasefire collapsed Sunday night.
"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.
The post 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 surrounding areas, and after the Israeli Air Force responded with strikes on military targets in western and central Iran, including a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr. Israeli media reported the retaliatory campaign is expected to continue for several days.
Trump's message marks a notable moment of public pressure on Israel, a close US ally, at a time when Washington has invested heavily in ceasefire diplomacy across the region. Earlier on Sunday, Trump had told Fox News that the Iranian missile strikes on Israel are "certainly not going to help negotiations," and had separately urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran.
The one-word instruction, stripped of any diplomatic framing, reflects the urgency with which the White House is viewing the renewed escalation, particularly given that Iran has formally conditioned any peace deal with Washington on the achievement of a stable ceasefire in Lebanon, the same front that triggered Sunday night's exchange of fire.
Whether Trump's public appeal will be enough to halt the current cycle of strikes and counter-strikes remains to be seen. Iranian officials, including Ibrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, told Kurdistan 24 exclusively on Monday that Tehran's era of restraint is over and that both the US and Israel should expect "worse and more painful days ahead."
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