The supposed ceasefire that Trump announced tonight came after Iran signaled it no longer wanted to fight and Trump called Netanyahu and bluntly told him, “No more war,” a senior White House official said.
The phased-in ceasefire — in which Iran would stop firing for 12 hours before Israel would do the same for another 12 hours — was Trump’s idea to appease Israeli concerns that Iran would not hold up its end of the deal, the official said.
Iran’s foreign minister has denied that his country has agreed to a ceasefire.
Over the past 48 hours, Trump had been working the phones, according to the senior White House official. Another source familiar with the outreach told NBC News that Trump called the emir of Qatar earlier today to say he could get Israel to agree to a ceasefire if the emir could get Iran on board. Qatar’s prime minister then coordinated with Vice President JD Vance, and the prime minister spoke with the Iranians, the source said.
At 3:53 p.m. ET, Trump called Iran’s retaliatory strike a “weak response” on Truth Social and suggested that Iran could now “proceed to Peace” and that he would “enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”
Shortly after that post, the senior White House official said, Trump called Netanyahu with a direct message: “No more war. No more fighting. The Iranians have been significantly weakened.”
As Trump was speaking with the Israelis from the Oval Office, his national security team was busy sending messages to the Iranians through intermediaries, the senior White House official said.
The senior White House official said that Trump got Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire and then Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff signaled to the Iranians — “both directly and indirectly” — that the United States wanted a ceasefire and that the Iranians should agree to it.
In a separate social media post this afternoon, Trump thanked the emir of Qatar.
At 6:02 p.m. ET, Trump announced in yet another post that a ceasefire agreement had been reached — although neither Israel nor Iran offered any public confirmation. In the post, he suggested the conflict between Israel and Iran should be called “THE 12 DAY WAR.”
That name was Trump’s idea , the senior White House official said.
