JD Vance Tells Israeli Critics to Back Trump’s Iran Deal as Netanyahu Tensions Rise

U.S. Vice President JD Vance lashed out at Israeli critics of the Iran deal at a White House briefing, telling reporters, "wake up and smell the reality," as tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump rose.

Vance said Trump is "the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time," and he warned that Israel’s cabinet should not be attacking the ally he described as its last powerful support.

Al Jazeera

In the same briefing, Vance credited Netanyahu for not personally criticizing the deal while explicitly raising the military aid the United States gives Israel, saying, "Over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars,".

The dispute sharpened as Trump chastised Israel for continuing attacks on Lebanon that threatened to derail the deal with Tehran, and Trump urged Israel and other Middle Eastern countries to stick to the truce, saying, "We expect a complete Ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel."

J.D. Vance defended the U.S.-Iran agreement as a "win-win" while Trump attacked critics of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) he signed on Wednesday, with Trump calling those who questioned it "fools" on social media.

Vance told reporters at the White House, "We have all the cards," and he urged, "Have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States," as critics slammed the deal’s vague provisions.

Haaretz

Trump’s pushback included a claim that those who see problems with the MOU are "jealous, bad people, or stupid," and the conflict that began in late February has been described as roiling markets and global oil supplies as Tehran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

In a separate exchange, Trump suggested Netanyahu was less justified in criticizing the MOU because Israel allegedly pulled out of a joint operation to kill Qassem Soleimani in 2020, with Trump saying, "They were all set the night before the attack. Then [Israel told] me they didn’t want to do it,".

As part of the agreement to end the war, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. Navy lifted its blockade on Iranian ports by allowing more than a dozen ships to pass through, and he also said the greatest amount of oil since the war began was flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran will invite the U”

Antigo Daily Journal

Vance’s update came at a White House news briefing, where the same account said Iran would invite the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog to inspect its nuclear sites and begin identifying the locations of Tehran’s enriched material.

The deal described in the briefing also calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and waives U.S.-backed sanctions, immediately allowing Iran to sell its oil freely, while Iran said it would not charge any fees to ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days.

Beyond the U.S.-Iran track, the same report said Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council that while Gaza is no longer classified as being in famine it remains in severe crisis six months after the ceasefire, and he urged the council to ensure the opening of all border crossings and the immediate removal of Israeli restrictions on "essential survival items,".