‘Sometimes to be cool’: Trump calls Israel, credits Lebanese ceasefire

US President Donald Trump claims the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was established through his intervention

US President Donald Trump has urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, telling the country to “calm down sometimes and use your head” as a ceasefire came into effect on Friday after a deadly attack in Lebanon that killed 47 people.Trump told NBC News he had spoken to Israel and asked it to agree to a ceasefire, but he declined to say whether he had spoken directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“It’s positive,” Trump said of the ceasefire. “It’s kind of the icing on the cake,” he added, referring to the memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran aimed at ending the conflict in West Asia.“Sometimes you have to calm down and use your head,” Trump said of his relationship with Netanyahu. “Bibi and I have always been good.”Hours after the ceasefire took effect, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff began traveling to Switzerland for the first round of talks with Iran on a potential nuclear deal, Axios reported.A day earlier, Vice President Vance canceled plans to attend the talks, which were canceled due to renewed fighting in Lebanon. The escalation creates new uncertainty over the fate of crucial negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed that the talks had been postponed and that Switzerland remained ready to facilitate them.A senior U.S. official said the ceasefire agreement came into effect after the two sides exchanged fire at around 4 p.m. Lebanese time. U.S. and Qatari negotiators reached the deal with help from Iran.“If Hezbollah does not attack us, then it is not war time for us,” an Israeli official said, adding that Israel would keep its troops in southern Lebanon.The Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli attacks from midnight to Friday had killed 47 people and injured 97 others. The Israeli military said an incident in Lebanon killed four soldiers.Two Lebanese security sources said Israel launched more than a dozen airstrikes in the first hour of the ceasefire, but none were recorded after 5 p.m.Trump again defended the deal after facing criticism in Washington, including from some Republican allies in Congress.“War weakens Iran!” he wrote on social media. “We are not meeting out of desperation, Iran is doing this. They are finished! We will fight for 60 days. They have not got a penny, not even ten cents!”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that the United States would be held responsible for any breach of its commitments in the deal, including ending fighting in Lebanon.The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and discussed holding the next round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations in Washington from June 23 to 25.Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz increased after the deal was signed this week. Before being blocked by Iran during the war, the strait carried nearly a fifth of the world’s crude oil.