Israel-Iran Ceasefire Agreement: Still a Long Way to Easing Tensions

Editorial

15:09 JST, June 25, 2025

Israel and Iran, which have been exchanging attacks, have agreed to a ceasefire, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced.

If implemented, this would be an important step toward avoiding an all-out war between these two military powers in the Middle East. Both countries are strongly urged to exercise restraint, so as not to slide back into fighting.

Trump said in a social media post that the two countries had agreed to a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” and indicated that he expected the fighting would end as early as June 25.

Iran’s foreign minister also announced that Iran would not continue retaliating if Israel stopped its attacks.

Prior to the announcement of the ceasefire, Iran launched a missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. base in the Middle East. Iran claimed the attack was in retaliation for the U.S. military’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, but the United States and Qatar were notified in advance and no casualties were reported.

By limiting the attack to a restrained one, Iran may have signaled that it did not want a further escalation in the fighting, while still saving face by having retaliated against the United States.

The Israeli side also is believed to have accepted the ceasefire sought by the United States, as it has succeeded to a certain extent in destroying nuclear facilities and military bases in Iran with the support of the U.S. military.

The hope is that the two countries will stop attacking each other, and the spread and intensification of warfare in the Middle East will be halted.

However, while Trump was quick to announce the ceasefire, both countries were slow to express their positions. The situation does not warrant optimism, as there is no clear path toward the implementation of the ceasefire and the abandonment of Iran’s nuclear development.

There is no doubt that Trump led the way in this ceasefire. During an emergency meeting at the U.N. Security Council, the United States argued that the U.S. military attack on Iran constituted an exercise of the right of collective self-defense to protect its ally Israel.

Although the U.N. Charter prohibits the use of force in principle, it approves of U.N. members exercising the right of self-defense as an exception. For that reason, Washington asserted that its action did not violate the charter.

However, even though Iran was promoting nuclear development, may it be said that the threat was not so obvious and imminent that Israel and the United States would be forced to invoke the right of self-defense? They also did not call in advance for a resolution authorizing the use of force at the Security Council.

Even if the method of wielding the U.S. forces’ overwhelming military power to bring the other side to its knees is temporarily effective, it will not lead to a long-term solution unless accompanied by diplomatic efforts.

This could set a precedent for countries other than the United States to use the threat from another country as an excuse to use force.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 25, 2025)