Iran and ‌Israel say they have halted attacks on each other, while warning of a resumption if the ceasefire is breached again.

Monday’s halt followed an appeal from US President Donald Trump that they immediately “stop shooting” after a wave of attacks in the past ‌24 hours that marked the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire.

It threatened to wreck US efforts to reach an agreement with Iran to end their more than three-month war.

Oil prices pared gains when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over.

The US dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was holding fire “at the moment”. But he stressed that the struggle against Iran and Hezbollah was “not finished”.

Hours earlier, Iran’s armed forces said they had stopped operations following the delivery of a “painful response” to Israel. But they promised “more severe and crushing measures” if Israel carried out more strikes, including in Lebanon, where Israeli forces are fighting the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

Iran said its strikes were in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beiruit. Photo: AAP

Also on Monday (Australian time), Trump told US outlet Axios that he had warned Netanyahu he would be isolated if strikes on Iran continued.

“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’,” Trump told Axios reporter Barak Ravid.

Trump said that Israel gave the United States “very late notice” about strikes on Iran on Sunday. To the BBC, he denied Netanyahu had defied his wishes by launching strikes.

“No, no. They had already gone. They had already gone. They were already on their way,” he said.

Trump said five countries in the region, which he did not name, had urged him to intervene with Netanyahu after the recent strikes.

“These countries were very concerned. They love the deal that we have been negotiating,” Trump said.

He said Iranian official had also contacted him to say they would stop shooting if Israel did.

“They called us and said that they are not doing any more attacks and asked us to tell Israel not to do any more attacks,” Trump told Axios.

Asked by the BBC how he had persuaded Netanyahu to stop attacking Iran, Trump said: “All I did is say, ‘We have to use sense’. We’re very close to signing a very powerful deal, a very good deal.

“No nuclear weapons, no nothing. You know, we have to use a lot of common sense. It was fine.

“If I tell him to do something, he does it.”

Later Trump said the US would declare “total victory” over Iran in the next two weeks.

“We’re negotiating now, and they want to make a very good deal. They’re willing to give us everything, they’re willing to give us no nuclear weapon,” he said at a rally for South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.

“I think we are winning that battle, but you’re really going to win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory, it’ll be a total victory, it’ll happen very soon, and oil prices will come tumbling down.”

It’s not the first time Trump has promised significant progress in “two weeks”. The ceasefire with Iran, announced on April 7, was initially supposed to last two weeks while the two sides finished a deal to end the war.

Earlier, Pakistani Prime ⁠Minister Shehbaz ‌Sharif ​said the ‌final objective ‌in ‌peace talks between Iran and ‌the ‌US was “just about ​to be achieved”, asking ‌all sides ​in the ​conflict ​to ​exercise restraint.

Israel struck Iranian targets after Iranian forces fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday.

Iran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut.

Israel hit a petrochemical plant in south-western Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.

Iran’s military headquarters said it had “delivered a painful response” against Israel for its ‌attacks on Lebanon, including Sunday’s strikes ‌on the outskirts of Beirut.

“Accordingly, the operations ⁠of the armed forces are hereby declared halted; however, it is emphasised that if the aggressions and acts of mischief continue – including in southern Lebanon – much more severe ​and crushing actions than before will follow.”

The exchange has complicated Trump’s push to end the war, launched by the US and Israel on February 28, and underscores how easily the conflict could widen into a broader regional confrontation.

A ceasefire announced on April 8 had paused all-out warfare but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.

-with AAP