President Donald Trump on Monday said US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June “lifted a dark cloud” over the Middle East and paved the way for Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
“If you look at the Middle East, I would say prior to us hitting Iran so hard, we could have never made that deal (Gaza peace deal) because you would have had a dark cloud over the Middle East,” Trump told reporters alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Washington DC.
“When we took out their nuclear capability, which was one of the great military maneuvers of all time... the Middle East just opened up,” he added.
The US airstrikes targeted three key Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, following an Israeli air campaign that began on June 13 against Iranian military and nuclear-related sites.
“Iran would have continued producing tens of thousands of ballistic missiles at an accelerated pace" had Israel given in to the demands to stop the war, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Knesset on Monday.
"Within a few months it would have developed atomic bombs aimed at destroying us — as well as you, Knesset members, everyone: Jews, Arabs, rightists, leftists. They would all ascend to the sky in atomic smoke,” Netanyahu added.
The Gaza peace deal mediated in early October by the United States, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar put an end to over two years of Israeli attacks on Gaza, which started in response to Hamas's October 7 attack.
Deadly fighting broke out in southern Gaza on Sunday between Hamas and Israeli forces, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement.
Clashes erupted near Rafah after Israeli troops came under fire, prompting airstrikes that killed at least 26 people, including civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza health officials. Hamas said Israel had breached the ceasefire, while the Israeli military blamed Hamas for initiating the attack, which killed two Israeli soldiers.
"There is a strong likelihood that Iran was involved in a Hamas attack on Israeli troops near Rafah that killed two soldiers on Sunday," Israel Hayom reported on Sunday, citing a regional diplomatic source.
Iran maintains continuous contact with parts of Hamas' leadership as well as field commanders, and has a clear interest in sabotaging the ceasefire and undermining efforts to end the war, the report cited the source as saying.
