US President Donald Trump declared that a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran went into effect just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday in a post to Truth Social.
Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post that Trump's social media post was not released at the intended time or in the manner it was supposed to be.
In his initial announcement, Trump said a ceasefire would begin around six hours from his first social media message announcing the breakthrough, which placed the timing close to 12 a.m. Eastern time.
Shortly after that, Israeli and Iranian media began running headlines saying the ceasefire had begun.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian news agencies and officials rejected Trump’s overnight declaration of a “complete and total ceasefire,” saying no formal truce had been offered and that rocket fire would continue so long as Israel carried out air strikes.
An English-language dispatch on the Mehr News Agency quoted an unnamed “informed source” who called Trump’s statement “a false claim aimed at masking recent American failures.” The source insisted Tehran had received “no written or verbal proposal” from Washington.
Iranian media denies ceasefire
A similar denial ran on the hard-line Fars News site. Citing what it described as senior security officials, Fars said talk of a ceasefire was “intended for domestic US consumption” after weekend American air strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
Despite Trump’s televised assurance that hostilities would end at 04:00 a.m. Tehran time on Tuesday (7:00 a.m. Israel time), Iran launched another volley of ballistic missiles towards Israel minutes after the deadline, killing several people overall, according to Israeli emergency services.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X/Twitter, formerly Twitter, at 04:16 a.m. that Iran would “halt further defensive measures if Israel stops its illegal aggression.” He added: “There is no agreement—only Iran’s readiness to reciprocate de-escalation.”
The mixed messaging left the status of Trump’s so-called “12-day war” ceasefire unclear. A rolling live blog by the Associated Press noted the contradiction between Iranian state television graphics announcing a truce and simultaneous missile alerts issued by Israel’s Home Front Command.
Israel did not immediately acknowledge a reciprocal commitment to halt its strikes. However, military spokespeople confirmed that no Israeli sorties entered Iranian airspace after 4:00 a.m., saying the air force was “assessing developments.”
Tehran’s narrative
Iranian social-media channels allied with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps broadcast footage that they claimed showed the “final salvo” against Israel and a strike on the US air base at Al Udeid in Qatar. None of those claims has been independently verified, but the clips fueled a narrative on Farsi-language Telegram and X/Twitter that Trump’s ceasefire talk was “face-saving spin.”