Iran, Israel pledge to end attacks that threatened talks

Eltaf Najafizada, Omar Tamo and Arsalan Shahla, Bloomberg News on Jun 8, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Iran and Israel agreed to ease strikes against each other after a flare-up in violence threatened to derail peace negotiations and led President Donald Trump to appeal for de-escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement Monday that Israel would hold its fire in Iran for now but would respond should Tehran attack again. Earlier, local TV station N12 reported that strikes in south Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants would continue at full force.

Iran had earlier announced an end to its military operations against Israel. But its central military command warned that if Israel continued to attack, including in southern Lebanon, “much harsher and more crushing actions than before will be on the way,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a statement.

The pledges from the two sides came after Trump spoke with Netanyahu by phone on Monday. A White House official confirmed the call without providing details of the conversation. Netanyahu said he told Trump that Israel has the right to self-defense.

The prime minister also rejected Tehran’s warning that any further Israeli hostilities against Hezbollah in Lebanon would draw a fresh Iranian attack. “This equation is intolerable,” he said.

The back-and-forth underscores how Trump, who has repeatedly said talks to end the war are in their final phase, is seeking to avoid a further escalation in violence. Trump said in an earlier social media post that final talks on a truce were “proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.”

Highlighting the tenuous nature of the pullback, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post that his country had neither abandoned the battlefield nor the negotiating table.

Oil prices rose about 1% on Monday with Brent crude ending the session near $94 a barrel. Gains were limited after signs emerged that Iran and Israel would halt their strikes.

Attention remains focused on whether energy flows will resume meaningfully via the Strait of Hormuz. A trickle of commercial shipping returned to the waterway over the weekend, even as ongoing security risks drove some vessels to travel with their digital transponders switched off.

Iran and Israel traded fire on Sunday. Israel intercepted Iran’s barrages while striking targets in Tehran and the Karun petrochemical company in Mahshahr on Monday. Tehran warned it will target all oil and gas facilities linked to Israel, the U.S. and their allies in the region if attacks on its own energy infrastructure continue, according to Fars.

Iran began its offensive after Israeli strikes on Beirut, marking a rare example of Tehran coming to the defense of Hezbollah.

The fighting posed the most serious challenge yet to a ceasefire that took effect on April 8, halting a war that began in February when the U.S. and Israel started bombing Iran. The conflict has left thousands of people dead across the Middle East, disrupted global energy flows and spurred a rally in oil prices that’s stoking fears of a surge in global inflation.

The latest bout of violence erupted despite Trump’s warning on Sunday that a renewed escalation could derail efforts to secure a new, 60-day truce between Washington and Tehran. That would pave the way for negotiations on a broader agreement aimed at ending the conflict permanently.

Israel has insisted that any U.S.-Iran agreement won’t cover its conflict with Hezbollah. Iran has sought to keep Hezbollah under its security umbrella, while Trump has prioritized securing a deal.

Separately, the U.S. president told the Financial Times that his Israeli counterpart would have to accept any deal the U.S. reaches with Iran. “I call all the shots,” Trump said, according to the report, adding that Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.”

Offering another potential front of escalation, the Iran-backed Houthis said they launched a missile barrage on Israel from Yemen and will be imposing a “complete and total ban on maritime navigation for the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea,” according to statement on their Telegram channel.

_____

With assistance from Mike Cohen, Neil Munshi, Dan Williams, Jordan Fabian, Devika Krishna Kumar, Josh Wingrove, Ethan Bronner and Galit Altstein.

_____