Vice President JD Vance told reporters Wednesday that Lebanon was never part of the United States’ ceasefire with Iran, and it would be dumb of Iran to let negotiations disintegrate over Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
Vance made the comments as he was departing Hungary for the United States.
“I actually think—and there’s a lot of bad faith negotiation and a lot of bad faith, you know, propaganda going on—I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding,” Vance said. “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
“We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states,” he added.
Vance said that Israel, as he understands it, has “offered… frankly to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful; that’s not because that is part of the ceasefire.”
“I think that’s the Israelis trying to set us up for success, and we’ll, of course, see how that unfolds in the next few days,” Vance said.
He told reporters it would be unwise for Iran to end the ceasefire because of Israel’s strikes on Lebanon:
But look, if I Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart, in a conflict where they were getting hammered, over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb, but that’s their choice.
His remarks echo those of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said Wednesday that Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire agreement.
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