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U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that "things are going very well" as Iranian missiles were tracked over Israel, telling a reporter who reached him by phone that he could not talk but offered the brief aside.
An Israeli reporter for Channel 14 quoted Trump separately as saying, "everything will work out. It will work out nicely, and in the end there will be peace in the Middle East after 3,000 years."
The day's escalation began with an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's Dahiyeh district, carried out despite an existing ceasefire. Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, has long been a stronghold of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed armed group that Israel has been targeting in Lebanon throughout the broader regional conflict.
Iranian officials swiftly condemned the strike and said Tehran would respond.
The Iranian military subsequently announced it had targeted Israel's Ramat David Air Base with ballistic missiles, describing the facility as a hub for Israeli operations against Lebanon.
The Israeli military confirmed that two ballistic missiles fired from Iran had been intercepted, before warning shortly after of a second incoming barrage.
Israel's Home Front Command placed the entire country under restricted activity and ordered all schools closed Monday. Iran shut its western airspace following the launches, and Iraq announced a 72-hour closure of its own airspace.
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Trump said he had not been informed in advance of the Dahiyeh strike, the attack that set the day's events in motion. Axios and Israel's Channel 12 reported he was calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him not to respond militarily to Iran's strikes. The calls came as Iranian missiles were still being tracked over Israeli territory.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid said Trump told him he was "very close" to a permanent deal with Iran to end the war and did not want the diplomatic process disrupted by the escalation.
"The Iranian strikes didn't hurt anybody. Hopefully, Israel is not going to retaliate. If Bibi strikes them back, it's just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or the last 3,000 years," Trump said, as reported by Axios.
Iran-US negotiations had been ongoing since a ceasefire took effect in April, though talks held in Pakistan failed to produce a final agreement.
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