As U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he could delay plans to strike Iran and enter negotiations to end the war, Israel and Iran announced they are conducting mutual airstrikes.
The Israel Defense Forces said on the 23rd (local time) via its Telegram channel that it is carrying out airstrikes on targets of the Iranian regime in central Tehran. Around the same time, Iran's military said in a statement that it used drone units to conduct precision strikes on Israel's Tel Nof Airbase and the U.S. Azraq Airbase.
The two countries' remarks came shortly after President Trump suggested the possibility of ending the Iran war. Trump said on his SocialTru account and in media interviews that over the past two days the United States and Iran had very useful and productive conversations to comprehensively resolve hostilities in the Middle East, adding that he instructed the Ministry of National Defense to delay all military strikes on Iran's power plants and energy facilities for five days.
However, about 50 minutes after Trump's post went up, the Israeli military announced airstrikes on Iran. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported damage, announcing in the morning that 54 casualties resulted from U.S. and Israeli attacks.
Iran claimed there had been no U.S. attempt at talks and said it attacked Israeli and U.S. military facilities. Regarding the Tel Nof Airbase it claimed to have struck, Iran's military described it as a pivotal facility that supported acts of aggression toward Iran and operated a flight wing.
As for President Trump's claim that negotiations are underway, it said this was an attempt to manipulate the oil and financial markets through "fake news."
Esmaeil Baghaei, Spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, told the state-run IRNA that it received a message through friendly countries that the United States was requesting talks, but said there had been no negotiations or dialogue with the United States over the past 24 hours.