AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding, at least for now. President Trump is claiming credit and has billed himself as a peacemaker since reentering office in January. Over the past five months, Trump has become directly involved in three separate conflicts, but so far, his record is mixed at best. To explain, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hi, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, I feel like so much has happened in even the last 24 hours. What is the current status on the Israel-Iran ceasefire?
MYRE: Well, it's holding, though it really doesn't feel very solid or secure yet. Trump raged at both Israel and Iran this morning, saying they were both shooting after the deal took effect. And Trump, as we know, is a very strong supporter of Israel, so his sharp criticism was striking.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I'd never seen before. The biggest load that we've seen. I'm not happy with Israel.
MYRE: So most shooting over the past 12 days has been at night. It's now early Wednesday morning in both countries, so this will be the first big test of whether it's working. And, Ailsa, at this point, I feel compelled to quote Mark Twain, who said, "giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." Well, the same thing is true with Mideast ceasefires.
CHANG: Yeah.
MYRE: They're easy to declare. It's been done countless times. The hard part is making them stick, and that's precisely where we are right now.
CHANG: That quote is so apt. OK, but do we actually know how much damage has been done to Iran's nuclear program?
MYRE: Well, at this point, we don't know for sure, and it's already shaping up to be a major point of contention. Trump said U.S. airstrikes totally obliterated the nuclear facilities. He angrily denounced the media today for questioning his position. But members of the national security community are offering assessments that are at least somewhat at odds with the president. One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells our NPR colleague Tom Bowman that the Defense Intelligence Agency believes the damage was limited at Iran's most important nuclear site, Fordo, and Iran's program has probably been set back a few months. Now, we should add that the chairman of the joint chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, said Sunday at a Pentagon news conference that the Iranian sites sustained extremely severe damage, but a full assessment was still ongoing.
CHANG: OK, so some competing claims in the U.S., but how do you think Israel and Iran are likely to characterize the war?
MYRE: So Israel can say it greatly weakened Iran, its biggest rival in the region. And Iran can say it withstood a double-barrel attack from the U.S. and Israel and is still standing. So they could both claim some sort of success, though it's less than a full victory for Israel, and Iran has suffered another in a series of recent setbacks.
CHANG: All right, let's turn to another war in the Middle East - Israel and Hamas in Gaza. What's the picture there right now?
MYRE: Yeah, you know, this conflict has really been ignored the past couple of weeks, but more than 40 Palestinian civilians were killed in Israeli strikes today. That's according to Palestinian officials. The humanitarian crisis remains dire. And a reminder, Israel and Hamas had a ceasefire on January 19, the day before Trump was inaugurated. He claimed credit for that truce, just as he's done in Iran, saying it wouldn't have happened without him. But the ceasefire collapsed with an Israeli offensive in March. Trump has not sought to restrain the Israelis in Gaza, and that war grinds on under conditions worse than the day he took office.
CHANG: All right, to Europe now. The president has also tried to broker peace in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. How is that effort going?
MYRE: Yeah, Ailsa, Trump just arrived in the Netherlands for a NATO summit where this war will feature prominently. Trump may meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy there. In short, the fighting has intensified recently, mostly because Russia has ramped up missile and drone strikes. And Trump runs hot and cold on this war, at times saying a ceasefire is near, then backing away and saying the two sides just might have to fight it out.
CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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