President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a tentative ceasefire in their conflict that would begin about midnight Washington time on Monday.

Trump, who made the surprise announcement on his Truth Social platform days after ordering airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, said the accord is aimed at a lasting end to the fighting.

“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called “THE 12 DAY WAR.”

There was no immediate comment from Iran or Israel on Trump’s post. Vice President JD Vance said the president had been “working the phones constantly” Monday with a goal of getting an agreement.

Details of the timing of exactly when each side would stop fighting weren’t immediately clear from Trump’s post.

As Trump made the announcement, Iranian media reported powerful explosions in Tehran and several other cities. Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is not seeking to escalate tensions but is prepared to respond to any further U.S. aggression.

His announcement came just hours after Iran fired missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where U.S. Central Command has its regional headquarters, after promising it would respond “proportionately and decisively” to the weekend bombing by U.S. forces of three nuclear facilities. Qatar said the Iranian missile barrage was intercepted and the base had been evacuated in advance. Trump thanked Iran for the advance warning and the limited strike.

Oil plunged on relief that Tehran’s measured response offered the prospect of easing tensions in the conflict, which began 10 days ago when Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear and missile installations and military leaders. Iran has responded with several days of missile strikes on Israel.

After the attack on Qatar, Trump posted, he added: “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!”

Speaking to Fox News after Trump announced the ceasefire, Vance said that the U.S. bombing over the weekend had met its objectives.

“We know that they cannot build a nuclear weapon,” Vance said, adding that Iran’s existing stock of highly enriched uranium was “buried” by the attack.

“if Iran is desperate to build a nuclear weapon in the future, then they’re going to have to deal with a very, very powerful American military,” he said.

Iran’s move on Monday appeared to be “a largely symbolic retaliation,” said Ziad Daoud, Bloomberg Economics’ chief emerging-market economist. “Plenty of warning was given — Qatar shut its airspace and the U.S. issued warnings to citizens.”

Some of Qatar’s Gulf Arab neighbors including Bahrain, which hosts a U.S. naval base, and the United Arab Emirates also closed their airspace late Monday as a precaution. All those countries announced within hours that their airspace had been reopened to traffic. Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia issued statements condemning the Iranian attack.

The U.S. and its allies were expecting the strike, according to a person familiar with Western intelligence assessments. U.S. diplomatic missions advised Doha-based residents earlier in the day to shelter in place.

Iranian officials also suggested the move had a symbolic element. The number of missiles fired matched the number of bombs deployed by the U.S. against the nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and the Qatar strike “poses no danger” to a “friendly and brotherly country,” the state-run IRNA news agency said.

Israel says its war against Iran aims to prevent the country from acquiring atomic weapons, a risk also cited by Trump to justify U.S. involvement. Iran denies ever having sought a nuclear bomb.

In the past few months, American and Iranian negotiators had held several rounds of talks aimed at a new agreement on curtailing Iran’s program — to replace the 2015 nuclear deal which Trump abandoned during his first term. A key sticking point in those discussions was the question of limited uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, which Tehran insists it’s entitled to do under international law, and Trump appeared to rule out.

Since Israel’s attack on June 13, Trump has alternated between military threats and hints of renewed diplomacy. His envoy in the earlier negotiations, Steve Witkoff, has been in contact with Iran since the U.S. strikes. Tehran has said it won’t rejoin talks while under attack.

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With assistance from Dana Khraiche, Golnar Motevalli, Eltaf Najafizada and Kate Sullivan.

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