President, Insisting He Is Close to Peace Deal, Urges Restraint by Israel After Iran Lobs Ballistic Missiles

Israel’s Defense Forces intercepted an attack from Iran on Sunday, saying defensive systems shot down four ballistic missiles aimed at northern Israel after it alerted residents to take shelter. The attack had very clearly been expected as Iranian state media had warned earlier in the day that Tehran was going to launch a barrage in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in neighboring Lebanon.The warning also set other nations on alert. Qatari officials earlier in the day issued a notice to air traffic control to redirect flights and provide alternative routes in the coming week from two of its airports as well as Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz International Airport.During an interview with Fox News after the attack, President Trump said he would “suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.” The president also told Israel Channel 12 that he hopes Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not respond to the provocation. “If Bibi attacks them back, it’ll just drag on like it has for the past 47 years, or the past 3,000 years,” he reportedly said, adding that he was about to call the prime minister and urge him not to respond. “Both of them have already done their part. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” he said.Iran said it launched its assault on Nahariya and Tiberias in response to Israel’s hits on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, which came in response to Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, firing on northern Israel earlier in the day. The exchanges between the Israeli forces and Hezbollah followed an agreement last week by the Lebanese and Israeli governments to a ceasefire, which Hezbollah rejected. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the attack on Sunday night “was merely a warning announcement, and if aggressions are repeated, the responses will be broader and will include all American-Zionist targets in the region.”Washington has urged Israel to restrain from skirmishes as it seeks to work out an agreement with Iranian leaders, which the president again said were very close. Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump said the Iranians had only about 21 or 22 percent of its arsenal left after firing at Israel and at U.S. installations in the Gulf in response to the war launched on February 28. An April 8 ceasefire has mostly held despite some defensive shootdowns of drones by America’s military in the Strait of Hormuz. The president said he is confident that an agreement will be reached soon since Iran is choking on $400 million to $500 million per day in economic losses due to a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. He added that he’s talking with his third set of negotiators.“We’re having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now. It’s the third group that we’ve been dealing with. And they are different. And you could say it’s regime change actually because these are very different people. I find them to be more rational, very smart,” the president said in an interview that was recorded Friday but aired on NBC on Sunday.The president refused to name any of the Iranian negotiators while at the same time calling Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, “rational” and “brave” after being “pretty badly injured.”He added that Iranian negotiators have “conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons,” but he wants to enshrine in any agreement that they will not purchase, develop, or otherwise acquire nuclear materials from outside the country.

President, Insisting He Is Close to Peace Deal, Urges Restraint by Israel After Iran Lobs Ballistic Missiles

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