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

The US vice president says Iran had a ‘legitimate misunderstanding’ about Lebanon’s inclusion in this week’s ceasefire.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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3White House says Trump’s ‘red line’ against Iran nuclear enrichment remainslist 2 of 3Iranians breathe a ‘ceasefire’ sigh of relief as all sides claim victorylist 3 of 3World reacts to ‘brutal’ Israeli attacks on Lebanon after US-Iran truceend of list“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.