US Vice President JD Vance criticised Israel for a “weird panic” and “freakout” over the agreement struck between the US and Iran, in an interview released on Thursday as the Trump administration sought to tamp down criticism of the deal.
Israeli officials across the political spectrum, including some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies, have criticised the agreement, saying it did not address their concerns over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and would tie down Israel’s military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“There is this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen — but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behaviour,” Vance said in an interview with The New York Times.
“That’s not how the deal is written.”
The US would not remove sanctions on Iran if it were still funding a terrorist organisation, he said, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah, which Washington has long labelled a foreign terrorist organisation.
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US has earned trust: Vance
Vance accused Israel of a lack of trust in its strongest ally.
“I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world,” Vance said.
