Trump says no further strikes, Israeli planes turning back

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump that he could not cancel a planned military response against Iran following what Israel described as a violation of the newly declared ceasefire, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the exchange.

Iran and Israel should return to the ceasefire and reduce tensions in the Middle East, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday, following US President Donald Trump's statement that both sides had violated the truce.

"I want the ceasefire to continue, and therefore, obviously, the sooner we get back to that, the better," Starmer told reporters as he arrived at the NATO summit in the Netherlands.

"We need to get back to that ceasefire, which is consistent with what I've been saying about de-escalation for quite some time now."

President Donald Trump warned Israel on Tuesday not to drop any more bombs on Iran or it would be a violation of the ceasefire he is trying to broker between the two countries.

"Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!" Trump wrote in a post on his social media site shortly after he left the White House for a trip to the NATO summit in The Hague.

The European Union called on Iran "to engage seriously in a credible diplomatic process", an EU spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said on Tuesday.

"This escalation benefits no one, and everybody is concerned by the same thing, which is the spillover effect," El Anouni said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said both Israel and Iran violated the ceasefire agreement, and claimed that Tehran’s nuclear program had been eliminated during the latest round of hostilities.

“Both sides broke the ceasefire,” Trump told reporters before leaving for the NATO summit in The Hague, referring to the US-brokered truce that was announced hours earlier and confirmed by both governments.

He did not specify which side acted first but added, “I didn’t like that Israel unloaded right after we agreed to a ceasefire.”

The remarks follow conflicting reports from Tel Aviv and Tehran over who initiated strikes after the ceasefire took effect. Israel said Iran launched ballistic missiles toward its territory, while Iran denied the accusation and said Israel continued to fire on its positions for more than an hour after the truce was supposed to begin.

Trump, who has taken credit for brokering the ceasefire, also made claims about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “Iran will never rebuild its nuclear program,” he said. “Their nuclear capacities are gone.”