Germany, France and the Netherlands on Tuesday welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran—which the Islamic Republic proceeded to violate almost immediately—and supported making sure Tehran does not obtain nuclear arms.
Separately, Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel and the U.S. of starting the war and reiterated its call for preventing an escalation.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tweeted that he “Welcomes the American President’s call for a sequenced ceasefire. If this ceasefire succeeds following the decisive U.S. military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, it is a very positive development.”
He called on Israel and Iran to observe the ceasefire and thanked “Qatar and the other states in the region for their restraint in the dramatic last days and hours,” referencing the Iranian rocket launches at a U.S. airbase in Qatar on Monday.
“With the American and European partners, we will discuss on the sidelines of today’s NATO summit in The Hague how the situation can now be further stabilized,” added Merz.
France’s foreign ministry, in a statement, also welcomed the ceasefire announcement as the “consequences of [violence] would be catastrophic for the entire region.”
France “Reiterates that only a diplomatic solution can provide a lasting response to the security challenges posed by Iran’s nuclear program. Iran must never possess nuclear weapons.”
Dick Schoof, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said the “announcement of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel is a positive step to prevent further escalation in the region,” adding that “Iran must never become a nuclear weapon state.”
It is “important” that Iran returns to the negotiation table now, Schoof added, “as negotiations are the only path to a sustainable solution and stability in the region.”
Within hours of the ceasefire announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday evening (Tuesday morning in Israel), an Iranian rocket landed in Beersheba, killing four people, and several other projectiles were launched at Israel’s north shortly thereafter.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said this was a violation of the ceasefire Trump had announced and urged the parties to observe. Katz ordered the Israel Air Force to strike “regime targets” in Tehran in response, he tweeted.
U.S. President Donald Trump, on his Truth Social platform, ordered Israel to hold its fire, warning that if it bombed Iran, this would be a “major violation.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry in its statement on Tuesday cast the U.S. and Israel as the aggressors in the war and called to “halt the escalation,” but didn’t directly acknowledge the declaration of a ceasefire.
American and Israeli attacks “against Iran have resulted in a sharp deterioration in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. This constitutes an exceptionally dangerous erosion of global and regional security. We reiterate our call to halt escalation,” the Russian foreign ministry’s statement read.
Many European and other leaders did not immediately react to the announcement of the ceasefire.
Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said following the ceasefire announcement that Iran is assessing damage to its nuclear industry and arrangements had been made for its restoration, according to the state-run Mehr news agency.
“The plan is to prevent interruptions in the process of production and services,” Eslami said.