US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that Iran’s negotiators appeared to believe the US-Iran ceasefire agreed on Tuesday included Lebanon, but Washington had not agreed to that.
“I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” he said, according to Reuters.
He added that the agreement was intended to focus on Iran and US allies. “What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran, and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states,” he said.
This comes as Israel launched its deadliest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah began last month, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday, as the Iran-backed group resumed rocket fire on northern Israel following a brief pause under the two-week US-Iran ceasefire.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said on Thursday it had launched rockets towards Israel in response to what it called a violation of the US-Iran truce.
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JD Vance to lead US delegation in Islamabad talks
The White House also announced that the US would proceed with direct talks with Iran, even as ongoing fighting in the Middle East – including Israeli strikes in Lebanon – threatened the fragile ceasefire in the six-week conflict.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Vance would lead the US delegation to Islamabad, alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with the first round of talks scheduled for Saturday morning local time.
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‘There’s a lot of agreement’ between US and Iran
Speaking ahead of the visit, Vance suggested the US and Iran agree on more aspects of a peace deal than they disagree on, saying disputes over a few issues “must mean there’s a lot of points of agreement.”
Frustration over three sticking points “actually means that there’s a lot of agreements,” he said, adding that “ceasefires are always messy” and often involve “a little bit of choppiness.”
He also took aim at Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, questioning his interpretation of the negotiations.
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“I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English,” Vance said “because there are things that he said that just didn’t make sense in the context of the negotiations that we’ve had.”
