U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticised Israel for a "weird panic" and "freakout" over the agreement struck between the U.S. 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 programs and would tie down Israel's military operations against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia 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 U.S. 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.
Vance accused Israel of a lack of trust in its strongest ally.
"I find this whole freak out 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.
"We’ve done a very good job by that particular country and that particular government," he said of Israel. "And I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship."
-Reuters
