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WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance criticized 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 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 Ive 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 behavior,” 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 organization, he said, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah, which Washington has long labeled a foreign terrorist organization.
