President Donald Trump said Sunday afternoon that Iran’s missile attack on Israel was unhelpful to ongoing negotiations while insisting that a peace deal remains within reach, possibly within days. Speaking to Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump said the attack would complicate diplomatic efforts.

“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” he said. “We’re very close. I would say an agreement would be signed on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. And now this takes place.”

The president then addressed Tehran directly: “You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.”

Trump also criticized Israel’s strikes on Beirut earlier Sunday, saying he was “not happy about it.”

Separately, he told Barak Ravid that he is “calling Netanyahu right now and telling him not to attack Iran in response.”

The chain of events began Sunday morning when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, prompting Israeli airstrikes on the terror group’s stronghold of Dahiyeh, a large suburb just south of the Lebanese capital, where the military said it targeted a Hezbollah headquarters. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported two people killed and at least 11 wounded, with two apartments in two separate buildings targeted.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strikes hit “command centers” in the densely built neighborhoods. “We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run,” Netanyahu told his cabinet.

Israel had largely held off on striking Beirut throughout the current conflict at the request of the White House, which feared such attacks would undermine Washington’s efforts to secure a ceasefire. Sunday’s strikes followed a heated June 1 phone call between Netanyahu and Trump, who was reportedly angered by Israel’s escalation in Lebanon and its potential to imperil the administration’s negotiations with Iran.

Iran’s retaliation came within hours. Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee, warned, “Watch the sky of the occupied territories tonight.”

By Sunday evening, Iran had launched some 10 ballistic missiles at northern Israel in several salvos. All of the missiles were intercepted or struck open areas, according to the Israeli military, with no reports of direct impacts, injuries, or damage. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted the Ramat David Air Base.

Senior Israeli officials told Channel 12 that Israel will “respond forcefully” to the missile attacks, saying Israel cannot allow an equation in which Iran fires on Israel whenever Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in Beirut.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, signaled that the weekend’s events could threaten the talks altogether. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that Israeli strikes on Beirut and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports could trigger retaliation, accusing both nations of abandoning their ceasefire and negotiation commitments.

Despite the violence, diplomatic efforts continued. Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday and was set to deliver a message directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Iranian state media.

In a separate interview with NBC News published Sunday morning, Trump expressed cautious optimism about the Iranian leadership, calling the new supreme leader “more rational” than his father, the late Ali Khamenei. He also said that under a peace deal, the U.S. would work with Iran to remove and destroy its enriched uranium, but warned that absent an agreement, the U.S. would resume military strikes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)