WILL THE CEASEFIRE HOLD?
The US can also claim a win. President Donald Trump, in typical credit-grabbing fashion, called the Iranian attack a “weak response” for which Washington was given “early notice”. But he also added that the attack allowed Tehran to get the US strike “out of their system”, and followed up by extending an olive branch.
In a subsequent post, Mr Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel and claimed credit for bringing peace to the two archrivals. “An official end to the 12-day war will be saluted by the world,” he said.
In doing so, he left out a key fact: Qatar, the target of Iran’s retribution, reportedly helped mediate the ceasefire deal. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later signalled an openness to a truce, and state media later confirmed that a ceasefire was in place.
That leaves Israel, which can also claim victory. Tel Aviv, on accepting the ceasefire proposal, said it did so after “achieving the objectives” of removing Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat.
Israel had “inflicted severe damage on the military leadership, and destroyed dozens of central Iranian government targets”, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement.
Mr Netanyahu had said two days earlier on Jun 22 that Israel was “very, very close” to realising its goals in the conflict. Continued strikes against other targets, including installations of state control such as the notorious Evin Prison which houses political detainees, surely allowed him to claim that all of his objectives were met.