\u201cThe problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump. And anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in,\u201d Vance concluded.<\/p>\n
Related: War-ending deal is signed by US and Iran, takes effect; commits Israel to terms it opposes<\/a><\/p>\n Vance\u2019s comments referred to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, far-right partners of Netanyahu who have both called for Israel<\/a> to disregard the terms of the deal, describing it as a danger to the country\u2019s security.<\/p>\n Anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in<\/p>\n \u2018You can\u2019t just kill your way out of solving every problem\u2019<\/p>\n Earlier, Vance told The New York Times<\/a> that he found \u201cthis whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd,\u201d suggesting that concern over the deal came from unjustified mistrust of the US.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I also think they\u2019re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH: JD Vance blasts Ben-Gvir and Smotrich:<\/p>\n You\u2019ve seen people in their system, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who\u2019ve attacked the deal.<\/p>\n And I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal?<\/p>\n You\u2019re a country of 9 million people. You can\u2019t just kill your way out of\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/S1V2bEwGBX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Clash Report (@clashreport) June 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Asked how he\u2019d respond to the ministers, Vance said: \u201cI guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You\u2019re a country of nine million people. You can\u2019t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the MOU on Wednesday, two days earlier than originally envisioned.<\/p>\n With the deal in effect, Tehran obtained large-scale economic relief and agreed in principle to a subsequent dilution of its enriched uranium.<\/p>\n However, the MOU did not resolve any of the war goals declared by the US and Israel following their joint strikes that kicked off the war in February. Rather, it pushed off discussion of Iran\u2019s nuclear program and other core issues to a 60-day negotiation period, which Vance said began on Thursday.<\/p>\n 60-day clock starts<\/p>\n Some officials have suggested that the first round of talks will be held on Friday, with others sufficing with an unspecified time over the weekend.<\/p>\n Vance said that it\u2019s difficult for Iranian officials to get out of the country, indicating that the meeting may take more time to get together.<\/p>\n The vice president appeared to differentiate between technical talks and ones with the more political leaders \u2014 the latter of which he plans to attend.<\/p>\n He said he still plans to go to Switzerland this weekend for the talks, but that this could change.<\/p>\n \t The US and Iran have treated Israel as subject to the MOU, as well as to previous ceasefire agreements between the two states, even though Jerusalem \u2013 which launched the war against Iran together with the US on February 28 \u2013 was not included in the negotiations.<\/p>\n Netanyahu himself has avoided directly criticizing the agreement, and most government officials have refrained from explicit pushback.<\/p>\n In Lebanon, \u2018both sides have to honor their end of the deal\u2019<\/p>\n Even the premier, however, has publicly rejected Iran\u2019s contention that the Israel Defense Forces must withdraw from Lebanon. The IDF on Thursday confirmed it would remain there for the time being, sharing a map of the areas in which troops are operating.<\/p>\n Asked about Lebanon, the vice president said that he still expects some conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group there but that he hopes both abide by the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect Hezbollah is not going to be firing rockets and firing drones at the Israelis. But we also expect that the Israelis are not going to be going wild in Lebanon,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth sides have to honor their end of the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump later declared, \u201cWe expect a complete ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The current round of major fighting in Lebanon started on March 2, when Hezbollah attacked the Jewish state in support of Iran, the terror group\u2019s backer.<\/p>\n Since March, Israeli ground troops have been operating in the south of Lebanon, in a campaign aimed at securing Israeli communities close to the countries\u2019 border.<\/p>\n Though deadly combat has continued in the south despite a nominal truce, Israel has mostly refrained from striking targets in Beirut, including Hezbollah\u2019s stronghold in the city\u2019s southern suburb.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, however, the IDF has struck in Beirut twice, both times in response to Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel. Trump was reportedly enraged by the development, and has confirmed hurling expletives at Netanyahu<\/a> over it. After the first of the two strikes, Iran directly attacked Israel with missiles, leading to Israeli retaliation and threatening to unravel the ceasefire altogether.<\/p>\n Vance said that while \u201cIsrael has the right to defend itself,\u201d Jerusalem must nevertheless \u201crespect this peace process.\u201d<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWhat the president gets very frustrated [with] sometimes is that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden, there\u2019s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That\u2019s not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Vance spent much of the press conference making the case for the MOU, which he helped negotiate.<\/p>\n The most controversial points of the memorandum<\/a> have been around oil sales, sanctions relief and a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, while there is no firm program for destroying Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n Vance said Iran would only get the rewards if it proves that it has complied with the terms that will be hammered out in a 60-day period that he said began on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u2018Words don\u2019t matter, we\u2019re about verification\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of discussion \u2014 the MoU, the gentleman\u2019s agreements, the final deal. Words don\u2019t matter, ladies and gentlemen, we\u2019re about verification,\u201d the vice president said.<\/p>\n He added that oil prices were falling, and said the US had lifted its blockade of Iran.<\/p>\n The US military \u201chas allowed north of a dozen ships to go through our naval blockade, and so we\u2019re also honoring our end of the early part of the agreement,\u201d Vance told journalists.<\/p>\n \t The administration has been accused of giving Iran a lifeline by allowing it to freely sell oil.<\/p>\n Vance took issue with that description: \u201cTheir economy is in a freefall. They have sky-high inflation. And fundamentally, about a trillion dollars of damage to their industrial base was caused over the last 3 months.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that selling a few million dollars\u2019 worth of oil is going to fundamentally transform the Iranian economy. That\u2019s just not true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pragmatists in Tehran are \u2018winning the argument\u2019<\/p>\n Vance claimed that the war caused major divisions in the Islamic Republic and that \u201cpragmatists within the Iranian system \u2014 the people who really do want to transform their relationship with the Middle East and with the world \u2014 are winning the argument.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, he said the US was now in a position to accept the MOU because Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities and conventional military have been destroyed, and \u201ctheir capacity to threaten their neighbors is still largely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The latter point appeared to refer to Iran\u2019s missile program, which the US leaders began the war pledging to completely destroy, but which they are now arguing<\/a> should be allowed to exist in some scope as a means of \u201cself-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n A Washington Post report last month asserted that, according to US intelligence, Iran has managed to retain 75% of its mobile missile launchers and 70% of its missiles. Asked about this, the vice president called the report \u201ccompletely false.\u201d<\/p>\n The coming negotiations will focus on Iran\u2019s nuclear program, which the US and Israel have cited as a threat to global security, and a principal reason for launching the initial military campaign.<\/p>\n Iran, which is avowed to destroy Israel, maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, though it is the only country to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity without a declared weapons program, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Uranium enriched to that level has no civilian use.<\/p>\n The interim deal calls for the IAEA to monitor the \u201cdownblending\u201d of that uranium in Iran, without elaborating.<\/p>\n Israeli pushback<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter on Thursday offered cautious pushback against the Trump administration\u2019s new stance that Iran should be allowed to keep some ballistic missiles, saying he hoped the issue would \u201cbe discussed and hopefully terminated\u201d during the upcoming 60-day negotiation period.<\/p>\n \u201cTehran is not like any other state in the region; they\u2019re not like any other state altogether,\u201d Leiter said in an interview with the right-wing Newsmax network.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a murderous bunch of thugs, and if they have ballistic missiles, they\u2019re going to use them on all of their neighbors,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Leiter said Israel was also \u201cvery concerned\u201d with the MOU\u2019s inclusion of Lebanon, with the text stating that the permanent end of hostilities between the US and Iran extends to Lebanon and that the latter country\u2019s territorial integrity and sovereignty must be respected, an ostensible call-out of the buffer zone Israel\u2019s military has created in southern Lebanon to try and fight Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group.<\/p>\n The ambassador said Lebanon was apparently included in the MOU at the insistence of Iran in order to protect Hezbollah, while following other Israeli officials in indicating that Jerusalem does not plan to abide by the terms pertaining to Lebanon, which specify that all military operations cease in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t have Hezbollah on our border, and we can\u2019t have Hezbollah continue to maintain tens of thousands of their terrorist fighters that try to infiltrate northern Israel and fire shoulder-to-shoulder missiles and killer drones into our communities. So, we\u2019re hopeful that Iran will not be allowed to dictate the future of Lebanon for [the] Lebanese and for Israel,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n \t Amid Trump\u2019s mounting criticism of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over what Washington feels is the IDF\u2019s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Lebanon, Leiter tried to remind the president of the assistance that Jerusalem has provided over the past year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been great partners ever since the president came back to office. We\u2019ve implemented the 12 Day War in June together against Iran, and ever since February 28 Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, we\u2019ve flown shoulder to shoulder into wing, and we\u2019ve degraded one of the world\u2019s most malign group of people, the madmen of Tehran, who have held us all hostage by closing down the Strait of Hormuz and firing ballistic missiles into all her neighbors,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n Despite his concern about certain aspects of the MOU, Leiter said, \u201cWe\u2019re very, very hopeful that [it]\u2026 will actually lead to what it claims, and that\u2019s the complete cessation of any kind of nuclear proliferation on the part of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, it merely sees Iran reaffirm that it will not obtain a nuclear weapon \u2014 a commitment that was included in former US president Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Israel was far more public in criticizing.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ben Gvir responded to Vance\u2019s criticism of him, telling the US vice president to fight Iran as the United States fought Nazi Germany in World War II.<\/p>\n In his New York Times interview, Vance called out<\/a> Ben Gvir and Smotrich for criticizing the US-Iran MOU, saying that \u201cyou\u2019ve seen people in [Israel\u2019s] system, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who\u2019ve attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Untitled-1-3-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tLeft: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, January 16, 2025; Right: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, January 13, 2025. (Both photos by Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DUAL-1-2-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump (left) seen signing the Persian-language version of the memorandum of understanding with Iran, at the Palace of Versailles in France, June 17, 2026. (Screenshot\/White House via X); Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signs the MOU in a photo released June 17, 2026, by the regime-run IRNA news agency. (IRNA via X)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260617__B7F96G3__v1__HighRes__LebanonIsraelUsIranWar-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tHezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem addresses crowds via a giant screen during the first day of Ashura commemorations at the mausoleum of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs on June 17, 2026. (Anwar AMRO \/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26165502602543-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tRescue workers check an apartment that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on June 14, 2026. (AP Photo\/Bilal Hussein)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26169656752073-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA man waves an Iranian flag as people beat their chests during a mourning ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 18, 2026, ahead of Ashoura, which honors the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s grandson, Hussein, who was killed in a battle in Karbala in present-day Iraq. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26169532347231-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIn this photo provided by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian displays a memorandum of understanding signed with US President Donald Trump, in Tehran, Iran, early Thursday, June 18, 2026.(Iranian Presidency Office via AP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26113789274337-e1776982166891-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUS Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, left, and Vice President JD Vance, right, listen to Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter speak in the Oval Office at the White House, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n