JD Vance says Iran would be ‘dumb’ to let talks collapse over Lebanon

United States Vice President JD Vance has warned Iran that it would be “dumb” to jeopardise its ceasefire with Washington over Israel’s attacks in Lebanon.Although Pakistan, which mediated the truce, said explicitly that Lebanon is included in the two-week ceasefire, Vance told reporters that the US did not agree that Israel would stop attacking the country.“If 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,” Vance said as he left Hungary on Wednesday.“We think that would be dumb, but that’s their choice.”Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s statement announcing the ceasefire. He highlighted the part about Lebanon.“The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Araghchi wrote.Still, US President Donald Trump and his White House have argued that Lebanon was not part of the deal.Vance dismissed the conflicting positions as a “misunderstanding”.“There’s a lot of bad faith negotiation and a lot of bad faith propaganda going on,” he said. “I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t.” It is unclear how such a “misunderstanding” could occur during high-stakes international negotiations. US officials have also not explained why the Pakistani statement highlighted Lebanon as part of the truce.Israel has a long history of violating ceasefire agreements, including the November 2024 truce with Lebanon. Since then, there have been near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon for 15 months.On Wednesday, Israel launched one of its deadliest and most destructive attacks, with dozens of air strikes that killed at least 254 people and injured more than 1,100 others.Still, Vance suggested that Israel had agreed to show restraint in Lebanon.He said the Israelis have committed “to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon, because they want to make sure” that the US-Iran negotiations are successful.The war in Lebanon intensified in early March, after Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against Israel in response to Israeli strikes, as well as the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Hezbollah is facing mounting pressure from rivals inside Lebanon over accusations that it dragged the country to war as part of its support for Iran.Iranian officials, meanwhile, have said they will not abandon Hezbollah.Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened on Wednesday that fighting would resume if Israel does not observe the ceasefire in Lebanon.“If the aggressions against dear Lebanon are not stopped immediately, we will do our duty and give a regretful response to the evil aggressors in the region,” it said.