From this:
"CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL. 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.” This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!
DONALD J. TRUMP,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"
To this:
“You basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the [blank] they’re doing! Do you understand that?”
That took about, what, 8 or 10 hours?
Meanwhile, a tentative ceasefire does now appear to be holding (although Israel is still blowing stuff up and killing civilians in Gaza....).
But, it really should be Qatar and Iraq, and specifically Qatari Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, that gets the credit here.
They're the ones that initiated contact with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and then President Masoud Pezeshkian, they're the ones that actually opened channels and got talks going for a ceasefire agreement and they're the ones that managed very adroitly defuse the anger around the Iranian missile attack on Qatar (by shifting blame to the IRGC).
