A series of powerful explosions rocked Tehran early Tuesday morning, according to AFP journalists on the scene, shortly after US President Donald Trump congratulated himself for what he thought was a ceasefire he had brokered between Israel and Iran.
Warplanes buzzed overhead as explosions shook the north and center of Iran’s capital around 3:00 a.m. local time, AFP reported.
The attack came shortly after Israel earlier warned residents in the Tehran neighborhoods of Mehran and District 6 that it will carry out operations there, CNN reported.
Trump on Monday said the ceasefire would be a phased 24-hour process beginning at around midnight Washington time on Tuesday (at the end of the night on Monday), with Iran unilaterally halting all operations. Israel would follow suit 12 hours later, the president said.
The explosions were heard about three hours before that deadline.
On his own “Truth Social” media platform on Monday, Trump announced that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire, claiming the “12-day war” (as he coined it) will end following a phased implementation over 24 hours.
“CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!” Trump wrote. “It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in-progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!”
“Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World,” Trump added.
Trump, who declared during his presidential campaign the he would end the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine “in 24 hours,” has struggled to make any progress in brokering even a ceasefire in that war, which has raged on for five months since his inauguration in late January.
Seeing a chance at redemption with the Israel-Iran conflict, after sending US bombers to attack suspected nuclear-weapons facilities in Iran over the weekend, Trump claimed, “This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD.”
A senior Iranian official also confirmed the ceasefire deal.