Twelve days after Israel aimed its fire at Iran, strikes that were joined by the U.S. in the form of bunker busters on three of Tehran’s nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump announced a “complete and total ceasefire” between the three nations.
The effective end to the war was expected after a 24-hour phased-in halt on attacks beginning on Tuesday. According to Trump, the implementation of the truce “will be saluted by the World.”
“During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday night. “On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR.’
In the wake of Trump’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi claimed there is “NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations,” a narrative corporate media such as CNN were quick to amplify. In the same post, however, Araghchi acknowledged that if Israel holds its fire, “we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.”
The news of a ceasefire comes shortly after the U.S. foiled Iran’s face-saving and pre-warned ballistic missile attack on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Trump noted in his declaration that the war could have “could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!”
His acknowledgement that escalation would not only harm his original objective, to “stop the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” but also wreak unwanted havoc on the other side of the world is a direct rebuke to neocon arguments that regime change in Iran is necessary and even good.
As Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson noted on Monday, before the ceasefire made headlines, “The danger we face now, then, is twofold: not just retaliation from Iran and its terrorist proxies, but machinations by establishment neocons and our corrupt intelligence apparatus to embroil us in a regime-change war in the Middle East.”
“If Trump wants truly to embrace a Jacksonian foreign policy and advance his America First agenda at home, he’ll resist that temptation,” Davidson warned.
As it stands now, the man who ushered in the Abraham Accords during his first term appears to have successfully warded off yet another war in the Middle East.
“God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!” Trump concluded his post.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
