Israel-Iran ceasefire after 12 days of war is a big relief to the world

Resumption of sixth round of talks between U.S. and Tehran the immediate task

- BY NITYA CHAKRABORTY

The most unpredictable President in the history of the United States Donald Trump has done it again.

At a time when the world was expecting fierce retaliation by the US missiles after Iran's attacks on US bases in Qatar in the early hours of Monday, President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire between Israel and Iran from 4 AM GMT of June 24-that is 9-30 AM of Indian time on Tuesday. For the maverick, nothing is acted on what he says. He warned that Iran would be facing its worst consequences if it attacked the U.S. bases, but after that attack, within 24 hours, Trump organized the ceasefire without resorting to any retaliation.

Similarly, after announcing last week that he would be taking a decision within two weeks on whether US will join the war against Iran, he surprised even his top officials by ordering bombing of Iran's three nuclear facilities on Saturday morning within less than 72 hours of his two week deadline. Trump enjoys keeping both his friends and foes on tenterhooks. A political narcissist to the hilt, he gets big pleasure in finding that the entire global diplomacy moves around him. Europe has become irrelevant. China and Russia also are yet to come anywhere near Trump's absolute power in deciding on the course of global diplomacy.