Trump sees chance to de-escalate Mideast war after Iran response

Kate Sullivan and Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg News on Jun 23, 2025

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President Donald Trump raised hopes of de-escalating the Middle East conflict after Iran’s strike against a U.S. base, saying the attack was “very weak” and telegraphed ahead of time by Tehran.

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” the president said in a social media post Monday. “Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”

Iran fired missiles at a U.S. air base in Qatar earlier Monday after promising it would respond “proportionately and decisively” to the weekend bombing by U.S. forces of three nuclear facilities. Qatar said the missile barrage was intercepted and the base had been evacuated in advance.

Oil plunged on relief that Tehran’s limited response didn’t target energy supplies and 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.

Trump said Iran fired 14 missiles toward the Qatar base, of which “13 were knocked down, and 1 was ‘set free,’ because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction.” The president added: “Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE.”

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With assistance from Shawn Donnan, Jordan Fabian, Dana Khraiche, Golnar Motevalli, Eltaf Najafizada and Arsalan Shahla.

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