How Trump cajoled Iran and Israel into a cease-fire and forced them to comply

The result by Tuesday morning: a cease-fire between Iran and Israel.

It remains to be seen how long the truce will hold, and whether the U.S. and its allies will be able to use the leverage gained by the American and Israeli strikes to reach a diplomatic deal that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in coming years.

Yet, the rapid move from a surprise airstrike to a cease-fire, with major policy pivots announced via social-media posts that gave whiplash to friends and foes alike, has showcased Trump’s unorthodox approach to wielding power.

It isn’t just allies who were bypassed. U.S. officials who would normally play a role during such a crisis were also left out of the loop, administration officials said, a sign of how narrow is the circle of advisers Trump trusts.

Almost immediately after the American B-2 strikes, Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him it was time to end the war, a senior administration official said. Trump’s message: The U.S. had completed its military mission and would cease offensive operations and Israel needed to do the same, the official said.

Vice President JD Vance has described the events of recent days as a new American foreign-policy doctrine focused on clearly defining national interests, aggressively negotiating to achieve them and the use of overwhelming force if necessary.

The force in this case was the fleet of B-2 stealth bombers that struck underground Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow and Natanz with a total of 14 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs. It achieved what the Israeli military—despite gaining air superiority over Iran more than a week earlier—was unable to do. The underground facilities at Fordow were likely significantly damaged and at Natanz the enrichment plant was hit, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it," Trump said in a social-media post.

During the conflict, Israeli cities sustained several hits from Iranian ballistic missiles, and Iranian military targets were subjected to widespread bombing. Neither side wanted the war to go on much longer, at least at that intensity, and both were eager for a way out that they could portray as a victory.

By then, Israel had hit what it considered the most important Iranian military targets and saw limited upside in a continued air campaign, according to people familiar with Israeli government thinking.

Iran, meanwhile, had been exchanging separate messages with Washington via Arab intermediaries for days.

On Saturday evening, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff informed several Arab countries that a U.S. strike on Iran was imminent, Arab officials said. After the attack, at Trump’s direction, Witkoff exchanged direct messages with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a senior administration official said.

Witkoff told Araghchi that Iran needed to come back to the negotiating table, saying the U.S. could inflict more damage on the country, according to the official.

Arab leaders also told Iran it was time to offer concessions to Washington, but Iran’s foreign minister responded that Iran wouldn’t negotiate under fire and wouldn’t abandon its nuclear program, according to Arab officials briefed on the diplomacy.

A satellite view of Iran’s Fordow complex, an underground nuclear facility that the U.S. struck over the weekend.

Once Fordow, Natanz and a separate site in Isfahan were struck by the U.S., Iran’s top military commander vowed to retaliate, saying the U.S. had violated its sovereignty.

Tehran’s move, a limited missile salvo fired at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, seemed designed to avoid further escalation.

Around noon Monday, moments before the missiles were launched, Iranian officials called Qatar to deliver a warning that the base would be hit, according to Middle Eastern officials familiar with the situation. Qatar relayed the Iranian message to the U.S.

U.S. officials told Qatar later on Monday that Washington also anticipated the attack, and that the U.S. didn’t plan to retaliate, U.S. and Middle East officials said. Iran passed messages to Qatar that the attack would target solely the base, not the civilian areas of Qatar, according to those officials.

That gave the U.S. military, which already removed aircraft and many troops from Al Udeid, sufficient time to move remaining personnel from the base, and for the U.S. Embassy in Doha to warn American citizens to “shelter in place."

Qatar then closed the country’s airspace to commercial flights as it awaited the Iranian barrage: a total of 19 missiles, according to Qatar. All were intercepted by air defenses, except one that fell harmlessly near the base. The interceptors collided with the missiles, leaving streaks in Doha’s summer night sky.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, said at a news conference Tuesday in Doha that his country had received prior intelligence that allowed the country and the Americans to prepare, but didn’t say what the intelligence was.

Shortly after the barrage, Vance spoke with the Qatari prime minister around 5 p.m., and Trump spoke with Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani minutes later, according to a person familiar with the calls. Trump asked the emir whether he would call Iran and ask whether the Iranian government was open to a cease-fire. He obliged, and Iran agreed.

Trump—who just hours earlier publicly contemplated regime change in Iran—announced the cease-fire after the calls, posting on social media: “CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!"

A Truth Social post by President Trump announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.

“Donald Trump is not a pacifist, but there is an aversion to being drawn into long, drawn-out military engagements," said Michael Wahid Hanna, director of the U.S. program at nonprofit International Crisis Group. “There is a motivation in doing the things his predecessors failed to do."

Diplomats who would normally provide talking points for calls with regional leaders weren’t asked for help, U.S. officials said. Instead of a flurry of orders and coordination requests, the National Security Council was effectively dormant.

Despite Trump’s social-media victory lap, Israel and Iran were still exchanging further blows.

Four hours before the cease-fire was set to take effect at 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Israel launched a wave of strikes in Tehran, killing hundreds of security-force personnel, Netanyahu said on X.

Among the targets was the headquarters of Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, a defense-ministry research institution, according to the Israeli military.

Minutes before the cease-fire deadline, an Iranian missile struck a seven-story residential building in the city of Be’er Sheva, killing four people in one of the deadliest episodes of the war for Israeli civilians. Rescue workers the next day combed through piles of rubble at the site.

Three more missiles were fired from Iran after 7 a.m., without causing casualties or damage, according to Netanyahu. Israel threatened further retaliation for the strikes. “In light of the severe violation of the cease-fire carried out by the Iranian regime, we will respond with force," warned the Israeli military’s chief of the general staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir.

Trump was surprised to learn Tuesday morning that the war hadn’t ended. He stepped out on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding a helicopter on his way to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Europe and rebuked both countries for threatening the cease-fire, especially the U.S.’s closest Middle East ally.

“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before," he said. He wasn’t happy with the two nations “that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing."

After boarding a helicopter for a short flight to his presidential plane, Trump tapped out an all-caps warning to Israel: “DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!"

Thirty-eight minutes later, after a call with Netanyahu, Trump announced the Israeli warplanes were turning around. “Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!" Trump posted on social media.

President Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that Israeli warplanes would turn around.

Netanyahu said Israel destroyed a radar installation near Tehran and, after the call from Trump, refrained from further attacks. Israel had “achieved all of its objectives for the war," he said.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council proclaimed that it had delivered a “crushing response to every act of hostility by the enemy" and “shattered the enemy’s primary strategic goal."

With quiet returning to the Middle East, Trump’s attention shifted to the NATO summit, where he will dine with royals and bask in persuading European allies to spend more on their own defense. “It will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran," he wrote online.

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com, Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com, Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com and Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com