President Donald Trump departed early Tuesday for the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, coming just one day after Iran carried out retaliatory strikes at a U.S. base in Qatar, and hours after he announced a ceasefire in the Israel-Iran conflict. The NATO summit will be the first time Trump will face European U.S. allies since returning to the White House in January.
Per CNN, Israel accused Iran of firing several missiles and vowed to respond “with force,” while Tehran denied violating the truce. A visibly agitated Trump told reporters as he left for the summit that both Israel and Iran had violated the ceasefire, several hours after it was to take effect. Trump said: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing,” however the President indicated he did not believe the ceasefire was broken. Trump said he is “not happy” and that “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a boat load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen, I’m not happy with Israel. OK, when I say now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with him [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]. I’m not happy with Iran either.”
Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire with Iran, in coordination with Trump, after the country achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. In a televised statement late Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel took out top generals and nuclear scientists and destroyed nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and the Arak heavy water reactor.
Trump later posted on Truth Social stating the ceasefire was saved: “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
Upon his arrival in the Netherlands on Tuesday night, Trump attended a formal dinner at the Netherlands Royal Palace alongside the King and Queen of the Netherlands. On Wednesday, Trump will attend the NATO summit where he will participate the first plenary session with NATO leaders. The president will then spend a few hours engaged in bilateral meetings with several world leaders, a senior U.S. official told reporters on a conference call, and will later hold a news conference before leaving the Netherlands to return to the U.S.
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