Vance warns Israeli cabinet: Trump is your only ally left in the world
US Vice President JD Vance sharply rebuked Israeli officials critical of the US-Iran peace deal, warning them not to alienate their only remaining superpower ally.
Vance's warning to Israel's cabinet
In a White House news briefing on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance pushed back forcefully against members of Israel's government who have condemned the framework agreement between the United States and Iran. Vance described President Donald Trump as the sole world leader sympathetic to Israel at this time and cautioned that attacking that ally would be self-defeating.
If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.
Vance also stressed that two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected Israel in recent months were built in the United States and paid for by American taxpayers. The US provides roughly $4 billion a year in military assistance, though a new aid agreement is under negotiation.
The framework deal and its critics
The US-Iran agreement, reached this week after nearly four months of warfare, has drawn sharp criticism from Israeli hardliners. Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich reject the deal outright. Critics argue that Iran emerges as the clear winner: sanctions are lifted, frozen assets released, while binding commitments on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs are absent.
Vance defended the terms by noting that no country would accept conditions that strip away its ability to defend itself. On the lifting of oil-export sanctions, he said Iran gains "no new advantage". The New York Times reported that Iran had struggled to sell its oil before the war, often forced to do so below market price, and Vance did not address that.
Netanyahu's position and the Lebanon front
Vance said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself had not expressed anger about the deal in their conversations, though he allowed the premier might speak differently with others. Netanyahu's office and foreign ministry did not immediately comment. The prime minister has separately said Israel will maintain its military presence in southern Lebanon to protect civilians from Hezbollah.
What the president has grown frustrated 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's a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut.
The framework agreement affirms the obligation to uphold Lebanon's territorial integrity, but Israel and Hezbollah are not direct parties. Iran insisted that an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon be part of the deal.
Strained relations and verification
US-Israeli ties have frayed over the course of the conflict. Trump has criticized Netanyahu repeatedly, publicly and in private. Vance closed by emphasizing that the administration will judge compliance by inspection, not promises. "Words don't matter," he said. "We're about verification." He added that Iran has pledged to stop enrichment and allow inspectors to destroy its highly enriched uranium stockpile.
